At Preble Street, we know that the solution to homelessness is housing, not handcuffs. That is why we support LD 1478: An Act to Decriminalize Homelessness. Join us in telling the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety that they must pass this important legislation! Click here to send an email to the Committee using our template or copy and paste from the sample at the bottom of this post. You can also submit written testimony or testify live in support of the bill. 

Many behaviors that housed people perform in the comfort of their homes — such as sleeping, drinking, and sitting outside — become criminal offenses for people without homes under laws that prohibit camping out, drinking in public, loitering, and other behaviors associated with homelessness. This criminalization reinforces the marginalized status of people experiencing homelessness, disconnects them from services they need, and further traumatizes individuals by involving them in our punitive criminal justice system.

This critical legislation would ensure that homelessness is not criminalized and that trained mental health and substance use professionals respond to encounters between law enforcement officers and people who are unhoused. Further, it would work to connect people with crisis services, emergency and transitional housing, and case management. 

Thank you for supporting our neighbors experiencing homelessness!

Sample email

To: CJPS@legislature.maine.gov

Subject: Pass LD 1478: An Act To Decriminalize Homelessness

Dear distinguished members of the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety,

My name is _____, and I am resident of _____. I am urgently asking you to vote in support of LD 1478: An Act To Decriminalize Homelessness.

This critical legislation would ensure that homelessness is not criminalized and that trained mental health and substance use professionals would respond to encounters between law enforcement officers and people experiencing homelessness. Further, it would work to connect people with crisis services, emergency and transitional housing, and case management.

 (Insert your personal story, comments, thoughts)

The criminalization of homelessness reinforces the marginalized status of people experiencing homelessness, disconnects people from the services that they need, and further traumatizes individuals by involving them in our punitive criminal justice system. Criminalizing someone experiencing homelessness dehumanizes that person and places blame on the individual, rather than the larger systems that continue to fail people who are seeking help.

For these reasons, I am asking you to vote in support of this much needed bill so that people are met with empathy and the resources they deserve, rather than criminalization and incarceration.

Thank you for your time,

_____ (your name)