{"id":579,"date":"2014-10-28T17:23:41","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T17:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=579"},"modified":"2015-10-13T19:02:23","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T19:02:23","slug":"foraging-in-the-urban-jungle-food-security-and-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2014\/10\/28\/foraging-in-the-urban-jungle-food-security-and-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"Foraging in the Urban Jungle: Food Security and Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to a new report<\/a> making headlines<\/a> this week, 21 American cities have passed laws designed to stop residents from sharing food with homeless people since 2013. The finding, which comes from the National Coalition for the Homeless, highlights an increasingly popular belief that hunger motivates troubled individuals to make lifestyle changes. Food aid, in this view, keeps the homeless complacent. In an interview with NPR<\/a>, one consultant argued that \u201cStreet feeding is one of the worst things to do\u2026 it’s very unproductive, very enabling, and it keeps people out of recovery programs.” Many city officials quoted in the report have extended this line of thinking to community soup kitchens and food pantries as well. They see those offerings as well-intentioned, but ultimately misguided attempts to help. One, a police captain from Cincinnati, remarked \u201cIf you want the bears to go away, don\u2019t feed the bears.\u201d Research shows this\u00a0isn’t the case, and these attitudes may actually\u00a0harm people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n

Social scientists have amassed a great deal of knowledge about the connection between homelessness and hunger. Over and over, they\u2019ve shown that people with stable food access tend to fare better in other aspects of life.<\/h5>\n