In 2022, across America, at least 582,462 people were experiencing homelessness. Approximately 28-percent of this group were people living in families with children.

Homelessness is rarely a choice and happens for a variety of reasons, including the inability to access affordable housing. About 60-percent of homeless take advantage of some form of social assistance or temporary housing, but 40-percent sleep on a sidewalk, in an abandoned building, in a vehicle or park or some environment not suitable for habitation by choice. Some of these individuals perceive shelters to be more dangerous than living on the street, and many lack access to convenient shelters or lack the mental capacity to make the choice to access a shelter.

Nationally, homelessness has been on the rise since 2017. The elimination of state operated mental health facilities decades ago has been a contributing factor in the growth of homelessness. Economic conditions over the past decade and recent inflationary pressures have only served to make the issue worse as more individuals, and families, can no longer afford housing.
Understanding the foundational elements that lead to homelessness, and the various types of homelessness, is important to understanding the scope of the concern, and perhaps, how best to address it and the impact it has on commercial real estate assets. There are four types of homelessness.

1. Transitional; the most common type of homelessness. Typically, the result of a major life change or catastrophic event. Job loss, health issues, divorce, domestic abuse, personal or family crisis and substance abuse. Oftentimes, these individuals may still have a job but cannot afford housing or other living expenses.
2. Episodic; defined as three periods of homelessness over the past twelve months. Can easily transition to chronic homelessness.
3. Chronic; homeless for more than a year, often having a disabling condition (mental health issues, substance abuse issues, a physical disability, or long-term health issues). This group tends to be older and makes up approximately 17 percent of the homeless population.
4. Hidden; typically live with others and do not access to available support services, so they are underrepresented in statistical data (aka ‘Hidden’). Frequently, these are younger adults or teens who may “couch surf” with friends, live out of a car and generally avoid shelters where they may feel vulnerable due to their age.

Statistics

Gender plays a major role in homelessness with 61-percent being male, 38-percent female and 1-percent Trans/Non-binary/Other. Ethnicity plays an even more significant role in homelessness with Whites representing more than half of all homeless, followed by Black/African Americans and then Hispanic/Latino. Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander represents the smallest total number of homeless.

But these statistics are deceiving in that 11 of every 10,000 Whites are homeless, 48 of every 10,000 Blacks/African Americans are homeless and 121 of every 10,000 Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander are homeless.

So, the incidence of homelessness is four times greater in the Black/African American population as compared to Whites, and ten times more prevalent in Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander populations as compared to Whites.

Commercial properties with a “homeless problem” are generally dealing with persons who are chronically homeless; these individuals may have physical disabilities, mental health issues (30-percent), or substance abuse issues (50-percent). Many will exhibit symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), though only 6-percent of homeless are Veterans.

Property Managers and the Unhoused

Many property managers question how to balance tenant concerns, leasing activity, and ensuring unhoused individuals receive the care they need. These are reasonable areas of concern to balance, and the answers are not always easy.

Other legitimate concerns of property managers include damage to the property from vandalism or forced entry, and possible fire risks and health concerns due to unsanitary conditions created by homeless persons. There are also legitimate concerns related to the safety of tenants and others who may encounter panhandlers and homeless individuals on their property.

Legally, it is ‘against the law’ to be homeless in every state, other than Oregon and Wyoming. The ‘law’ you violate by being homeless typically is related to prohibitions on public camping, sitting on a sidewalk, panhandling, or loitering.

To enforce violations of these laws, properties should have signage indicating that loitering and panhandling is prohibited, or that food court areas or public wi-fi areas are restricted to tenants, paying customers, or a defined period of time. These signs will frequently be ignored but are legally necessary to support the removal of an individual by law enforcement.

Property management, and the security services they employ, must realize that the limits of enforcement end at your property line. Trying to move homeless people out of public areas is legally inappropriate and could open the property to legal challenges brought by advocacy groups and citizenry aligned with the protection of what they believe to be the rights of homeless citizens.

Enforcing the rights of the property owner is appropriate and should be done consistently and with compassion, recognizing again that most homeless people do not choose this as a lifestyle.

Property Access and Use

In your efforts to enforce property access and use policies, it is important to not send “mixed messages” to unhoused persons, panhandlers or any unauthorized visitor to your property. Providing food, drink, money, or any other services will only encourage these individuals to return to the property.

Educate your tenants, especially food service tenants, to not support panhandlers or homeless with food, drink, or money; instead, encourage them to work directly with support agencies who will collect surplus food items and dispense them at an authorized shelter nearby. Waste receptacles or dumpsters containing food should be secured in a locked fenced area or a locked dumpster.

If a tenant makes a conscious choice to provide food to the homeless, they should work with property management to do so at a specified time and in a specific location. This should minimize the impact on the property and not encourage the homeless to access the property during business hours, where their presence may be considered disruptive. Properties with food courts should have a policy that no vendor may provide food to an individual who does not pay for that food item.

A comprehensive review of your property to reduce or limit areas that could be converted to shelter (under stairwells, ground level access to garages, ventilation grates, etc.) is advised. Complete this review with your security provider who should make recommendations for fencing, additional lighting, and other measures to make your property more challenging for use as a temporary residence.

Any horizontal surface, such as a low wall or bench, should have rigid strips installed to make laying down on that surface impractical. These strips should be at least 2” tall and 18” apart. This allows people to sit, but not lay down, on that surface. If the area or surface is not to be used for seating, embedding river rock or other stone into cement or an adhesive applied to the surface will create an effective deterrent to use for sleeping.

The use of “hostile” vegetation (holly bushes, red barberry, Russian Olive, etc.) can be an effective deterrent to areas being used for shelter along building perimeters because they are uncomfortable to pass through or to come in contact with frequently. Building landscape companies should be able to recommend appropriate plant material to support these objectives.

CPTED and Mitigation Strategies

The basic principles found in CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design), which most security professionals are familiar with, apply to reducing unauthorized use of a property, to include use by homeless persons.

The use of motion-activated or enhanced lighting, fencing, and video surveillance can support your mitigation efforts. Energy-efficient LPS (low pressure sodium) lighting has been shown to be effective at deterring people from loitering since many people develop a headache after 20 minutes of exposure to LPS lighting. This type of lighting would be well suited to building exteriors, industrial settings, parking garages, etc.

A physical security presence provided by on site or drive-by security patrols, or dispatched security patrols based on remote monitoring of your property, offer additional deterrence value.

For properties experiencing challenges that do not have sufficient video surveillance already in place, mobile surveillance platforms are an option. These can be monitored remotely, can offer talk-down audio to engage unauthorized persons and can provide valuable video evidence to support investigations by law enforcement or security personnel.

Remote monitoring – that includes the cost of the equipment – should be more cost effective than a full-time on-site security presence. If supported by a dispatched patrol response officer, this solution can offer an effective deterrent to ongoing concerns. Homeless personnel can easily monitor security patrol routines and just return to the property when security leaves. A remote monitoring company can re-dispatch the security patrol and disrupt the homeless before they settle in and become more difficult to remove.

Mobile video surveillance units can be solar powered, and trailer mounted for ease of relocation, but there are also smaller units that can be mounted on building corners or light poles which are able to communicate via cellular with remote monitoring services.

Engagement and De-escalation

At some point, it will become necessary to engage the homeless to get them to leave your property. The initial engagement should not be an aggressive or directive one. That is inappropriate and will likely not result in compliance.

Other than the chronically homeless with mental health or substance abuse issues, many homeless people are just trying to survive until conditions change or they can find affordable shelter. It is especially important to avoid any physical confrontations with the homeless, as some may be dangerous, due to substance abuse or mental health issues. Frequently they may carry some form of weapon for their protection. There may also be concerns regarding transmissible diseases during an altercation due to biting or exposure to open wounds.

Any person, including security staff, expected to engage homeless people on a regular basis should be properly trained in verbal de-escalation techniques. They should also be trained in homelessness in general, so they better understand whom they are engaging.

Maintaining a proper “safety stance,” perpendicular to the person you are speaking to (not face-to-face) and maintaining 15 to 20 feet distance when engaging anyone of concern is well advised. Understanding basic defensive tactics to protect yourself is also appropriate (how best to avoid being hit by a punch, how to quickly extract yourself from an altercation, etc.).

Equipping these individuals with body cameras for their protection and the protection of the asset owner or property management entity is also recommended. Recordings of interactions can provide valuable evidence to demonstrate that security personnel were enforcing building policies professionally and with courtesy and serve to support legal action against someone who assaults or attempts to assault the security officer.

It should be noted that the simple act of recording a homeless person could result in an agitated response, and that sensitivity training of security staff by qualified personnel is imperative to minimize the likelihood of confrontation.

Some body cameras can stream live video back to a control room so that the interaction can be monitored in real time. Many upload the video via property Wi-Fi platforms (or cellular) to the Cloud for retention and viewing. These devices can typically be acquired at a cost of $100.00 to $150.00 per month.

Use Kind Tones

When engaging the homeless, you should initially speak in a kind tone, as if speaking to a family member, and offer practical options; “I need you to leave this area and move beyond the property line please, there is an area nearby where you can rest and not be disturbed.”

If your request is met with resistance then providing a firmer direction will be necessary, “This is private property, and I need you to leave now please.” If necessary, you can escalate your directives to include, “… or I will contact the police to remove you.” But start with a reasonable and polite request, do not threaten to contact police unless you are prepared to do so.

Law enforcement should only be contacted to enforce violations of the law, such as loitering, panhandling, threatening behavior, public camping, trespass, etc.

Never attempt to remove an individual by physical force and do not touch them. Never touch or disrupt their personal effects if they are present; these may be all the possessions they have in this world and they could react adversely. If they are beginning to leave the area after being asked to do so, express your appreciation for their cooperation and allow them as much time as they need to collect their personal effects as these items may be life-sustaining for them.

This may take far longer than is convenient for your schedule, but it will be worth the time to gain cooperation and avoid confrontation.

If an unsheltered individual leaves their belongings unattended on your property, do not discard them, leave them where they are if you can but monitor the area to advise the individual when they return that they cannot leave items unattended at that location in the future.

If you believe you must remove the items, carefully and respectfully relocate the items to an area at the boundaries of your property where they can be found but may be in an area that is less distracting for your tenants, guests, and visitors. Remember, these may be all the possessions someone has and some of these items could be very important to the owner.

Placing the items in a heavy-duty trash bag (that could double as shelter in a pinch) and providing bottled water or toiletry items will show you are being supportive and caring and not simply “throwing away” someone’s personal belongings. The goal is to enforce property rules with compassion and to discourage unwanted behavior, not create animosity or retaliatory outcomes.

Extenuating Circumstances, Severe Weather, and Resources

If weather conditions are especially severe (dangerous storms, freezing temps/excessive heat), preservation of life should be your top priority. In cases like this, offering a temporary solution that supports your objectives but does not place the homeless person at risk is the better option. “I need you to come to our loading dock/unused area of a garage/seldom used hallway, etc. where you can remain until the storm is over, then I need you to leave please.”

Providing a humane option, while not ideal for the property, should solicit compliance from any homeless person with control of their faculties. While they are resting in a designated area, security can contact support or law enforcement services as appropriate to respond, when available, to transport the individual to a shelter if weather conditions are expected to remain inclement for hours or days.

Some chronically homeless people, especially those with mental health or substance abuse issues, can be confrontational and present a real danger to security staff and property personnel. After consulting with your legal team, in addition to body cameras, consideration should be given to equipping security staff or building support staff with CS Gas/Pepper Spray as a non-lethal option for protection in the event of a confrontation.

Some security providers, and many private employers, will not allow this measure due to perceived concerns related to potential litigation, even where legally permissible. Use of tasers, batons or other ‘offensive’ weapons is never advised. The use of CS Gas or Pepper Spray should only be considered to defensively support your safe exit from an unsafe situation, it should never be used as a tool to force compliance with a directive to leave the property. This will not work since the person will be incapacitated by the spray.

In areas where unsheltered persons exist in large numbers (“encampments”), building support staff and security staff should never approach groups by themselves; they should respond in pairs, have radio and cellular communications to call for assistance if needed, and they should immediately leave the area if their initial requests are not met with compliance. Better to contact homeless support services or law enforcement than to have an altercation.

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