Over the past several years, advocates and homeless shelter workers from around the country have received news reports of men, women and even children being harassed, kicked, set on fire, beaten to death, and even decapitated.
From 1999 to 2004 alone, there have been 386 acts of violence resulting in 156 murders of people experiencing homelessness by housed people, 230 victims of non-lethal violence in 140 cities from 39 states and Puerto Rico.
In response to this barrage of information, National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH), along with its Civil Rights Work Group, a nationwide network of civil rights and homeless advocates, began compiling documentation of this serious problem. The continual size of reports of hate crimes and violence against people experiencing homelessness has left NCH to publish its sixth consecutive report, Hate, Violence, and Death on Main Street USA: A Report on Hate Crimes and Violent Acts Against People Experiencing Homelessness in 2004. This report is a six-year study as well as a detailed analysis of 2004.
These reports are available on the NCH website at www.nationalhomeless.org