In Raleigh and Wake County, North Carolina (the state capital and its associated county), there are over 6,000 homeless individuals seeking services, over 5,100 homeless children attending Wake County Schools, and over 99,400 individuals in poverty at risk of being homeless (Raleigh Rescue Mission). This means approximately 1 in 12 people in Wake County are at risk of homelessness (using the Census 2023 population estimate). The Wake County Point-In-Time (PIT) Count (the count of all individuals experiencing literal homelessness on a single night) for 2023 was 683 households, or 916 people, 14% of which were youth between the ages of 18-24 (Wake County Continuum of Care - NC 507). PIT Counts are generally recognized as undercounts.
A Raleigh survival program, Meals for the Masses (MFTM), serves hot meals to the homeless community in downtown Raleigh once a week. With the City of Grants Pass v. Johnson Supreme Court case in mind, MFTM organizers wanted to get feedback from those they serve about the conditions people are experiencing with regard to sleeping on public property. MFTM conducted a survey of those served during their distributions on the Sundays from June 16, 2024 to July 7, 2024. Nineteen answers in total were obtained. Answers were either written directly by those surveyed, or were written by the organizer based on verbal statements of those surveyed.
The survey consisted of two questions:
For Question 1, the majority of those who responded (68%) said they had been harassed while being in a public space (see Note 1 at the end of this section for more information). While the survey may have been a very small sample size, it points to the general trend, of which examples are many: that homeless people cannot exist in public space without fear of harassment or arrest.
For Question 2, there were a variety of answers. Some people were alone when harassed, some were with others. It happened both day and night. People have been told to sit up when just laying down. One person said they were told to leave because of how they looked. One person said they were told the park is a “place for family and kids” (emphasis added). Does the person who was told this not have a family or children? Do their own family and children not count as the “family and kids” the park is meant for? Is their mere existence/presence in the same space as housed people not “family-friendly”? This statement is heinous to say the least, and the assumptions it relies upon go so far as to undermine the individual’s very personhood.
An example of this general trend of not allowing homeless folks on public property: in April 2024, on the border of Raleigh and an adjacent town called Garner, there was a high-profile removal of a homeless encampment. The encampment was in a grassed area owned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) along a highway interchange. The police gave a 10-day notice to vacate, which came as a response to supposed “criminal activity,” but when a local reporter from CBS 17 asked if the criminal activity was specifically related to the encampment itself and, if so, the nature of the criminal activity, the police did not respond. The police made the argument that their outreach unit, ACORNS (Addressing Crises through Outreach, Referrals, Networking, and Service) had already visited the encampment to offer services and that these services were not accepted by the residents. While this is merely speculation, ACORNS representatives likely just gave residents a list of contacts and shelters to go to for help. Many people make a conscious decision to not go to shelters, since they are often run like prisons, or because people like to have their own space. Getting the number to a shelter that you already made a conscious decision not to go to, or to an organization that rarely answers the phone, is not exactly “help”.
A different type of example of this trend: in downtown Raleigh, there is a public park, Moore Square, that is directly adjacent to the main transit/bus station for the city. For years homeless folks have congregated here. This is why MFTM serves meals directly across from the park. In late 2023/early 2024, it was decided to hire (and later to keep for a three-year contract) private armed security for the transit station and the park. The security personnel do not have police powers to arrest (but evidently, have power to injure/kill if they so choose). During a hearing on this matter, when a Raleigh City Councilor asked an NCDOT representative why the security personnel would be armed, the answer came back that the “environment” of/around the park necessitated it and that for the security personnel to have the “respect of the community, that would be a requirement”. In other words, the threat of intimidation would be required. This need to intimidate is so powerful that the private company did not want their personnel to patrol the area unless they could be armed.
But what need is there to intimidate those who are most vulnerable? To maintain the current balance (or should I say, imbalance) of power.
Of course this all translates into law as well. Raleigh Ordinance § 9-2025 states that: “So long as either the City of Raleigh or Wake County shall operate a twenty-four-hour a day emergency homeless shelter, it shall be unlawful to camp or stay overnight in or on any City park, greenway, street, or any other City property without first receiving a permit.” This law makes no mention of the number of beds available, so it would seem that you would be breaking the law by sleeping outside even if no beds were available. Furthermore, the law goes on to call out certain public parks in the city where the homeless often congregate (such as Moore Square Park), to say that in these areas, “No person shall camp, sleep, or rest in a prone position…at any time of the day or night except by permit.” The permits consist of a layer of red tape that many don’t know about and that seem to be easily denied or revoked.
There are numerous other laws on the books in Raleigh that target the homeless, such as those against begging/panhandling (§ 13-2007, § 13-2031), against shoeshining on city streets (§ 13-2013), and against urinating/defecating on public property (§ 13-3013). With the Moore Square Park restrooms being one of the few, if not the only, restrooms available to the public in downtown Raleigh, and with them being closed at night, you could see how you would be forced to break the law to simply relieve yourself.
There is also a law against distributing food in a public park (§ 9-2022). While this is not consistently enforced, there was an attempt at enforcement in 2013, which resulted in food distribution groups and churches being threatened with arrest while handing food out. Leaking of internal correspondence between city officials and the Raleigh police revealed that they had been conspiring to ban the distributions, with the director of the parks department wanting “photos of the feedings” and the “debris that remains,” while a police officer stated that “while everyone has expressed their views concerning the plight of the homeless and feeding them, no one has discussed or brought forward the real issue: the proper function and use of the park” (emphasis added). As if the state of a piece of property is more important than the hunger of hundreds of people, and the fact that these people have no home to go to! Once again, property is prioritized over the poor.
While the ordinance did not end up being enforced likely due to the immediate and intense backlash, the incident points to how dire the situation is, that even churches doing simple acts of charity for the poor can be construed to be of such detriment to the public that it is an act worthy of criminalization.
The Grants Pass decision is another part of this trend of homeless folks being barred from existing in public places without fear of harassment or arrest. Only by being in solidarity with one another and fighting together can we beat this wave of reaction.