The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) has just released their annual report on violence against homeless people. From their press release:

Washington D.C. - For five years, the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) has tracked a disturbing increase in crimes targeting homeless people by young people and severely disturbed individuals. These are well-documented violent attacks on homeless people that result in injury and in many cases death of a vulnerable population.

The hate crimes’ reports, "Hate, Violence and Death on Main Street USA: A Report on Hate Crimes and Violence Against People Experiencing Homelessness," have collected data from news reports and homeless shelters on the number of homeless victimizations that have occurred in the past five years.

The numbers for 2003 show that at least 9 people experiencing homelessness were murdered and another 61 were injured in non-lethal assaults. 131 people have been murdered in the last five years. People living on the streets have been set on fire, beheaded, hunted like animals, and been victims of serial killers. Three examples from 2003 include:

* "Three National Guardsmen were arrested in Medford, Oregon for beating a homeless man with a wooden club on a "mission to clean up the community." They called him a disgrace to his race and claimed to have "white pride."

* "Three men beat Lori Johnson, a 41-year-old homeless woman, with baseball bats in Minneapolis; when she was found she was bleeding from her ears. According to a witness, Johnson screamed during the attacks, "Why are you all doing me like this? I didn’t do anything." Johnson fell into a coma and underwent surgery to relieve pressure on her brain. Several months later, she was experiencing constant headaches, nightmares, and weakness on the right side of her body. She was undergoing intensive physical, occupational and speech therapy at a rehabilitation center. As of July 27, her doctors said Johnson’s rehabilitation could continue for months. Johnson is described as respectful and lovely by a group of ten women who know her."

* "In Downtown Cleveland, four perpetrators, aged 16 to 19, who videotaped the attack, used a 50,000-volt stun gun to shock homeless people in their genitals in downtown Cleveland; they also kicked and reportedly urinated on one, all while laughing. Of the accused, three are juveniles, and were charged with delinquency assault. The one adult, Joshua Langenheim, 19, was charged with six counts of misdemeanor assault and one count of possession of a criminal tool. In the State of Ohio, assaulting a homeless person is not seen to be, by law, a hate crime."

I served on the NCH board of directors and their civil rights work group for several years. This year I helped collect some of the data used in the report – including the above mentioned information from Medford, Oregon.

Check out this report and pay special attention to the action alerts asking for help in the fight to end violence.

As an added resource you can also read my paper Jessica Williams Did Not Have to Die: A Faith Perspective on Violence and Homelessness in America.