South Carolina city unanimously approves plan to make being homeless illegal

A new plan has been passed which will make it illegal to be homeless in Columbia, South Carolina. That’s right, if you are homeless, you will be arrested. Last week, the Columbia City Council unanimously approved a new plan called the Emergency Homeless Response, which will remove homeless people from the downtown business district, and place them in an encampment area. The area designated will be patrolled by the police, and the new residents are confined to that space.Most of us would call that a prison of sorts. Whatever spin elected officials want to put on this, it’s an abuse of power. Consider this: Many war-weary veterans are homeless and now they’ll be placed in a patrolled encampment.

Think Progress reports:
Here’s how the initiative, which was spearheaded by Councilman Cameron Runyan (D), will work.

Police officers will now be assigned to patrol the city center and keep homeless people out. They will also be instructed to strictly enforce the city’s “quality of life” laws, including bans on loitering, public urination, and other violations.
And just to ensure that no one slips through, the city will set up a hotline so local businesses and residents can report the presence of a homeless person to police.
In order to accommodate all the homeless people who will now be banned from downtown, the city will partner with a local charity to keep an emergency shelter on the outskirts of town open 24 hours a day. However, it’s unlikely the shelter, which can handle 240 guests, will be enough to handle the local homeless population, which numbers more than six times the available beds.
Homeless people can stay at the shelter, but they’re not permitted to walk off the premises. In fact, Columbia will even post a police officer on the road leading to the shelter to ensure that homeless people don’t walk towards downtown. If they want to leave, they need to set up an appointment and be shuttled by a van.
In other words, the 1,518 homeless people in the Columbia-area now have a choice: get arrested downtown or be confined to a far-away shelter that you can’t readily leave. Jail or pseudo-jail.

A democrat spearheaded this plan. Holy cow. Even worse, this plan was voted on unanimously.
Here’s an image of Councilman Runyan:

Julie Driscoll from Smoking Hot Politics breaks it down:

 If you’re (1) confined, (2) prevented physically from moving freely about, (3) restricted to a narrow strip of land as far away from the city proper as possible, and (4) crammed like sardines into a facility designed for 240 that will have to house six times that number, you’re a prisoner. I can call my poodle a pit bull, too, but that doesn’t make it so.

Think Progress has a detailed report here. 
More at Smoking Hot Politics.