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Hiding homelessness: ‘quality of life’ laws and the politics of development in American cities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2009

Anyu Fang
Anyu Fang*
Affiliation:
Stanford Law School, Juris Doctor Candidate
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Abstract

An incredibly disturbing trend has surfaced recently in local American politics: cities are forbidding citizens from feeding homeless people. My focus is on how this has been created in tandem with shifts in public discourse. Although I recognise the similarities between the new ordinances and previous anti-homeless laws, I want to point to something new that is happening in the legal treatment of street people. City governments, somewhat dependent on the non-profit sector to give material aid while government services are cut, are now vigorously targeting charities/citizens. I will argue that this trend relates to a shift in the framing of the homeless issue – more specifically, a shift in the very definition of the homeless.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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