2. Introduction
• It is absolutely unacceptable that in a modern and
civilized society there are still homeless people.
• The reality of homeless people remains invisible and
unknown making it easier to perpetuate the stigma,
the stereotypes and the prejudice.
• Sometimes stigmatization is accompanied by attitudes
of intolerance, which are the breeding ground for hate
crimes. These crimes are the violent manifestation of
a socially accepted prejudice.
• Homelessness can be ended. Being poor is not an
identity*, on the contrary, it’s a temporary situation
3. Hate crimes
• The framing of violence against homeless people
as hate crime is more advanced in the US.
• In the EU it is not always conceptualised as “hate
crime”: homelessness is not understood as a
grounds for discrimination like race, disability,
gender etc.
• Poor people / homeless people are not
necessarily considered a social group.
• However it’s conceptualized, violence against
homeless people because of prejudice is a reality.
4. Criminalisation of homeless people
• Measures penalising the use of public space that
affect homeless people (ordinances, by-laws) .
Discrimination on the basis of economic and
social status:
– These measures can create an atmosphere in which it
is acceptable to target homeless people.
– They can generate power dynamics leading to
harassment (by police officers, for example).
• Mean Streets, report on criminalisation (2013)
• Campaign Homeless Bill of Rights: a rights
approach to homelessness (2016)
5. Monitoring Europe
• Under-reporting: victims do not report
aggressions
• Under-recording: most EU MS do not collect this
data
• Most advanced UK. Crisis report :
http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/document_lib
rary/research/livinginfear_full.pdf
• OSCE annual report : http://hatecrime.osce.org/
– 2015: info from 41 countries.
– Spain only country with data on hate crimes against
homeless people
6. Monitoring: Spain
• Observatory Hatento in Spain, led by Feantsa
member RAIS Foundation. http://hatento.org/
– One of the first research focussing on hate crimes
against homeless people
– having rigorous and reliable data, allows for good
interlocution with governments
• SOS Racismo:
– not their main focus, but collect data: specific on
homeless migrants (both variables)
7. EU Policy
• European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)
http://fra.europa.eu/en/theme/hate-crime
– Don’t pay much attention to crimes against poor people
• The EU has a broad set of measures to combat different forms and
manifestations of racism and xenophobia:
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/racism-
xenophobia/index_en.htm
• EU High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other
forms of intolerance*:
– Exchange and dissemination of best practices and concrete
discussions on how to better prevent and combat hate crime
and hate speech.
– Assist the Commission in the preparation of legislative proposals
and policy initiatives
8. Proposals for Action
• Integrated Policies (Preventative)
– Governments need to integrate strategies to combat
hate crime into education, law-enforcement and
social policies
– Need for education at different levels: young people,
police, local governments, etc.
• Legislation:
– Consideration of violence against poor people as one
of the causes of discrimination in European legislation
– Being poor/homeless: aggravating factor in national
pieces of legislation
Editor's Notes
*Unlike other grounds for discrimination, being homeless is not an identity…
Criminalisation of homelessness, area addressed by Feantsa extensively
Instead of criminalising homeless persons, governments should work towards the elimination of the conditions that cause and perpetuate poverty and social exclusion.
In addition to punishing and stigmatising people without a home, the penalisation of homelessness creates new obstacles to serious efforts to alleviate poverty and deprivation.
Repressive laws that specifically target homeless people amount to discrimination on the basis of economic and social status. Rather than raising a fist, the authorities should extend a hand to encourage homeless people to claim the rights they are entitled to.
Under-reporting and under-recording
Spain-Hatento (RAIS) Only 13% have been reported
*OSCE ODIHR, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
http://www.legislationline.org/topics/subtopic/79/topic/4
Through the Social Platform, we get information but pretty much focused on racism/ xenophobia
10 % of aggressions by police forces
Hatento Spain (RAIS)