Complaint-Oriented "Services": Shelters as Tools for Criminalizing Homelessness. Issue 1 (January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Herring, Chris
• Other Names: Lee Barrett A. guest-editor.; Shinn Marybeth guest-editor.; Culhane Dennis P. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Volume 693:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 264
• Page End: 283
• Publication Date: 2021-01
• Subjects: homelessness -- policing -- social welfare -- poverty governance -- San Francisco; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- United States -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716221996703
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7162

Abstract

This article argues that the expansion of shelter and welfare provisions for the homeless can lead to increased criminalization of homeless people in public spaces. First, I document how repression of people experiencing homelessness by the police in San Francisco neighborhoods increased immediately after the opening of new shelters. Second, I reveal how shelter beds are used as a privileged tool of the police to arrest, cite, and confiscate property of the unhoused, albeit in the guise of sanitary and public health initiatives. I conclude by considering how shelters increasingly function as complaint-oriented "services, " aimed at addressing the interests of residents, businesses, and politicians, rather than the needs of those unhoused.