Advocates for the homeless argue that these laws are the equivalent of criminalizing poverty, as the homeless are simply doing what all human beings need to do to survive, but they lack the private space to do them. 

"Imagine if every shopper in Times Square that sat down got a ticket. It would never happen. It's so blatantly racist and classist," Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), told Al Jazeera, noting that those earmarked for police attention tended to be nonwhite and dressed in such a way to suggest poverty. "We're talking about laws that every single person is going to break, but only certain people have the police enforcing the laws against them."

Boden's organization is among several working to draft a Homeless Bill of Rights, which may be considered by state legislatures in California, Oregon and Colorado in January. If made into law, the Bill of Rights would help end the criminalization of homelessness.