“No one lives in the street in the winter, with the aim of mocking people.” “Homeless people are usually highly marginalized, desperate members of the society.” Sadly enough, the Supreme Court of Hungary had to emphasize such evident statements in its decision of dismissing plans for laws that criminalized living in the streets.
Politicians of the government keep saying that the Supreme Court has ultimately endangered the lives of homeless population by this decision. Mayor of Budapest, István Tarlós, claimed that in the era of the previous liberal city council leadership “it was legal to live and die in the streets of Budapest.”
Liberals and leftists react with the notion that the streets should not be considered as properties where laws can exclude people from. Only few emphasize that authorities should implement such social policies that help everyone to have a place to sleep and should not erase homelessness by criminalizing it.
Mostly social workers and other employees of foundations for homeless people draw attention to the fact that homelessness is typically such an issue which cannot be seen only as a matter of rights and freedom, but must be seen as a matter of social policies.
The leadership of several districts of Budapest is still unwilling to accept the Supreme Court’s decision and they plan to ask the Parliament’s help to implement prohibitions for sleeping in the street, claiming that without such rules they are unable to prevent other transgressions that are virtually always connected to homeless way of life, for instance aggressive forms of begging. Nonetheless, we cannot hear too much discourse about other (more humane) solutions, for instance how to provide more casual wards for homeless people and how to make the existing ones more secure? Especially now, that winter is coming in a few weeks…
Agnes Kelemen
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