Hate Crimes Against the Homeless

 Members of the homeless community, despite already facing more adversity and challenges than the rest of us, are also more likely to become the victims of violent hate crimes. A 2018 survey of reported violent incidents against homeless people was conducted by the National Coalition for the Homeless, finding that out of 1,769 incidents, 476 victims lost their lives. The NCH stated that while some of the violent crimes were simply opportunistic because of the victim’s inability to escape public areas, most of them were actual targeted hate crimes committed specifically because of a bias against the victims’ housing status or lack thereof. Violence against the homeless comes in many different forms, and the NCH specifically found incidents of murders, beatings, rapes, and mutilations. The primary target of this violence was middle-aged men, with 70 percent of victims being over 40 while 87 percent were male. Unsurprisingly, perpetrators tended to be males as well, though interestingly they were typically under the age of 30. The NCH also notes that they estimate the actual number of  bias-motivated violent incidents to be much higher than the numbers present, because this type of violence in particular is likely to go unreported. 

One thing that is shockingly clear from the NCH report is the fact that homeless people are not only more vulnerable to violent attacks, but they are also more likely to encounter them based specifically on biases held against them by members of the public. The dehumanization and denial of basic human rights that homeless people go through everyday have caused them to become overlooked as members of our society, and it has bred ignorance and hate in some of the more fortunate, fully-housed parts of the public who look down on them. For that reason, it is important to be cognizant of the violence and perils that they face as a marginalized group who already have few opportunities to speak up for themselves. 

To read the NCH report in more detail, click here, and to see even more data and read the NCH’s response, check out this link.