However, reality does not bear out these fears. As an LA Times op-ed piece<\/a> stated, perhaps the homeless need protection from us. Let\u2019s take a look at a couple of troubling trends that flip the script on widely held notions about who are the real aggressors: personal violence and hostile architecture.<\/p>\n Although it doesn\u2019t gain much traction in the media, violence against homeless individuals is depressingly frequent and pervasive. Notice some events that transpired during a two-month period in 2018.<\/p>\n California, historically a bastion of homelessness (and numbers are on the rise<\/a>), witnessed a spate of violence<\/a>. Four men were killed and four others seriously injured during the calendar month of September 2018. A 47-year-old Houston man, wielding a baseball bat and bolt cutters in the series of attacks, was charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder. The victims were attacked while sleeping outdoors. A few days later, two homeless people were doused with gasoline and bleach, and then burned with acid.<\/p>\n Three homeless people were killed<\/a> a month earlier while sleeping near Interstate 25 in Colorado. A 38-year-old man shot them to death.<\/p>\n August 2018 also saw the recovery of the body<\/a> of a 66-year-old homeless man. He had been living in a camp along Interstate 35 in Texas. The death was later ruled as a homicide.<\/p>\n Statistics show this especially bloody two-month stretch may be more aberration than rule. But violence against homeless people certainly isn\u2019t rare.<\/p>\n Social awareness website homelesshub.ca<\/a> states that from 1999-2011, “the National Coalition for the Homeless has documented 1,289 acts of violence against homeless individuals by housed perpetrators”<\/strong><\/em> across the US. In the NCH\u2019s assessment, the crimes are believed to be motivated by two main factors: bias against homeless people coupled with just how easy it is to target them. Violent encounters ran the gamut from beatings and rapes to setting people on fire to murder.<\/p>\n Who really needs protection here?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n A more subtle form of discrimination against homeless individuals is found in an increasingly popular trend of hostile architecture<\/a>. Urban buildings are incorporating design to prevent loitering, sleeping, and general vagabond-ism.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve likely seen these elements before. Inconspicuous additions like large clusters of jagged rocks along walkways, armrests on benches to block people from lying, and planters that obstruct sheltered space, to more obtuse examples like slanted benches,<\/a> nubbins, and spikes. That\u2019s right. The same anti-roosting technology once used as a form of animal control is now being added to building ledges to prevent sitters and liers down.<\/p>\n Meenakshi Mannoe, a community educator that works in Vancouver, Canada, links hostile architecture with anti-homelessness. \u201cThe general public is almost trained to see people who rely on public space as a nuisance, an eyesore,\u201d she states. According to Mannoe, these defensive architectural elements reinforce negative stigma.<\/p>\n Andy Yan, a director at a Vancouver-area university, describes hostile architecture as misdirected and damaging. “You have somebody facing profound physical, social and mental challenges, and you\u2019re solving it through a decorative hack. It\u2019s a response to a challenge that actually isn\u2019t just about public space. It\u2019s about the issue of affordable housing.”<\/p>\n Leave it to interestingengineering.com<\/a> to provide us with the fundamental issue of this design trend: \u201cThe problem with hostile architecture is that it doesn’t aim to address the crisis of homelessness. All it achieves is making life harder for those already struggling. Forcing people to find other places to sleep won’t solve the issue of homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n Bucking the hostile architecture trend, an advertising company from Vancouver (aka Rain City) designed a campaign<\/a>, which installed seven modified bus benches, some featuring rain covers. Fitting for Rain City. Slogans such as FIND A HOME HERE and FIND SHELTER HERE adorned the benches. Three of them had glow-in-the-dark ink inviting the homeless to take shelter at night with the words THIS IS A BEDROOM.<\/p>\n Rain City Housing\u2019s<\/a> \u2018friendly architecture\u2019 installation gained traction online<\/a>, providing a refreshing antithesis to hostile architecture the world over. Here\u2019s hoping that other cities follow suit.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Troubling Trends: Violence Against Homeless People and Hostile Architecture How safe do you feel? Does your home have an alarm system? Your car? For many, these kind of safety precautions are a given\u2014an unfortunate reality of the times we live … Continue reading A History of Violence<\/h4>\n
Is This Seat Taken?<\/h4>\n
Find a Home Here<\/h4>\n
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