For nine days in August, twenty high school students ranging in age from 15 to 18 went on a journey to explore the issue of youth homelessness. The students came from high schools throughout northern California - from Martinez and Oakland to Santa Rosa and Vallejo. He is part of the rapidly growing generation of homeless youth, street kids. The Coalition on Homeless-ness, a political advocacy organization in San Francisco, taught us about the trend of systematic criminalization of homeless people.
Cities pass laws making it illegal to hold signs on median strips or to sit on the sidewalks.
These laws pass because there is a climate of vengeance and hatred against those without homes. Police issue tickets to homeless folks for allegedly breaking laws regarding encampment or sleeping in the park. Yet it is not illegal to sleep in the park during the day. Simple tickets grow into warrants because homeless people often have trouble keeping court dates and can't pay fines. In Hollywood, we learned that merchants hire private security called the Green Shirts, solely to harass homeless people.