Nat'l Corporate Privatization BIDs for Local Anti-Homeless Cadres

categories: Advocacy, criminalization, Hiding the Homeless, Local Policy, News, Policy, Trends

Published October 10, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT

In major city after city across the United States a trained corps of quasi-security agents are being hired and trained by business to function outside the official law enforcement aegis to drive homeless people away from "business districts."

The parent corporation, SMS Holdings, has subsidiary units in several different service sectors, including maintenance and security. The company has been wooing and partnering with groups of local businesses banded together as "Business Improvement Districts" (BIDs) to install private-sector, uniformed teams to patrol these city areas and, in part, seek to target homeless populations with efforts designed to control and even remove homeless citizens. These "services" include preventing "panhandling" and "loitering."

The language is often veiled and euphemized, in public relations and sales use, so that calling the police and trying to rid the area of homeless is even sometimes expressed as "helping" them. For instance, in cities with little by way of any actual "services" for the homeless, the premise is still to "direct them to services" and "help" them get off the streets. Or at least the streets that the SMS Holdings subsidiary BLOCKbyBLOCK garners contracts to patrol and control in these ways.

From the company's website promotion, under "Keep It Safe":

"Address 'Quality of Life' Violations to Include:
• Panhandling (non-aggressive & aggressive)
• Loud or intimidating Behavior
• Solicitation

The company currently claims contracts with 33 cities and is intently seeking more, with specializations in assisting the local BIDs to arrange for "matching fund" tapping of public monies, whether civic, state and/or federal.

Some cities, such as Berkeley, CA, with their teams of patrolling "Hosts", have installed their own programs of similar nature. But the authority and funding of such programs can get a bit complex. These programs are blending private businesses, corporate entities and civic, public agencies, powers and... funds, of course.

In Berkeley, it's most ironic to find even federal funds earmarked to "help the homeless" spent in this way, which includes being directed by the business "bosses" to call the police on the homeless since citizens weren't doing so enough, in their opinion, in order to help rid the area of these people. And the bulk of their $200,000+ budget goes to services that have nothing to do with helping homeless people, as such. Critics locally also complain that the Hosts spend too much time sitting in cafe's, "just hanging out", and other idle past-times -- even "loitering"?

While BLOCKbyBLOCK is proud of their brightly colored uniforms, Berkeley opted for plainer brown jackets. That's jackets -- but not quite brown shirts.

Image by the author.

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Comments (4)

They operate in my city of Nashville Tn as well. When they first hit the streets a few years ago, I asked one of them what their job was. He said it was to "keep an eye on you homeless people." the company has since developed more PC language about their purpose. In Nashville they call them "Safety Ambassadors." And they spend their days stalking homeless people, in case one of them does something deemed tawdry. They then call the police. The same organization, the Nashville Downtown Partnership, that hired block by block, also hires off duty police officers to patrol (in uniform) areas known to be frequented by homeless people. And these officers are instructed to bust homeless poeple for any thing they may do. For this many homeless people now have police records for such things as littering, blocking a sidewalk, and other very petty and questionable offenses. This is nothing more than harassment of the homeless in hopes of driving them away from downtown. Still, for all their efforts over the years, the homeless population in downtown remains the same.

Posted by Kevin Barbieux on 10/11/2009 @ 01:40AM PT
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This is sick. They would rather criminalize the homeless and make a homeless person feel unwelcome to uphold their status quo? Does anyone know of any firms doing this in Chicago?

It shows a lack of basic understanding of the homeless. People are homeless for different reasons, but one thing is common among all, a lack. Whether that reason be a job loss, adequate health care / inadequate care for mental instability, or a feeling of a lack of social responsibility / protestors, it all comes down to the fact that inequality exists in our society and there are those who would rather ignore it, think it's a god-given social structure, or who actually try to help. I guess fixing the real problems (i.e. the latter) is just too much for those assholes (i.e. the former).

Posted by Dustin Buse on 11/19/2009 @ 08:57AM PT
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Being Homeless is no fun

Posted by dan b on 10/11/2009 @ 09:22PM PT
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harassement you say that, if you re targeted like this prohibited term, everybody feels that has the right to bother you, if you want to take a meal with the poors like JESUS did in the last supper, that's wrong?, instead everybody prefer take a meal with the evil, whatever person with powder can represent him. This a veil form or fascism, remember the cleaning squads, my friends.

Posted by jose ibarra on 11/14/2009 @ 07:05AM PT
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Author

"Slum Jack" is the pen-name expressing the nature of his homeless status, meant as an ironic device, and as explained on his own blog site. Formerly a property manager working with low income and other distressed tenants and properties, his background previous to that includes professional and business experience in other industries. He is a middle-aged man, has been homeless since the summer of 2008, and continues to contend with the predicament toward hopefully restoring an improved way of life for himself and others.