Increase Seen in Attacks on Homeless

Advocates Seek to Raise Awareness, Have Incidents Treated as Hate Crimes

At first, David Pirtle didn't think a lot about the five times he was attacked during his years living on city streets.

"I was struck on the back, kicked, urinated on, spray-painted," Pirtle said. "A lot of people who are homeless go through it, and it's just the way it is."

Now that he is no longer homeless, Pirtle said, he realizes how terrible the attacks were, and how he simply endured all the hate.

He is firm in using the word "hate," saying he thinks the attacks were motivated by hatred.

Advocates for the homeless are urging local, state and federal legislators to listen to stories such as Pirtle's and to pay attention to violence against the homeless. Their goal is to categorize such attacks as hate crimes, to get closer attention from law enforcement agencies and enhanced penalties in many jurisdictions. According to a survey conducted by the D.C. Department of Human Services last year, about 34 percent -- 979 -- of the homeless people questioned said they had been attacked.

The number is growing and reflects similar experiences nationwide, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group released a report last year tracking the increasing incidence of unprovoked attacks against the homeless across the nation.

"Our society should not tolerate any intolerance, and that's what these attacks are, intolerance of homeless people," said Tony Taylor, a policy associate at the coalition who has been working on the legislation and is trying to find a member of the D.C. Council to sponsor it.

"They are hurt by thrill seekers, by people who target them just because they are homeless," Taylor said of the victims. "That is a hate crime."

Taylor said the spate of attacks in the District, which included the killing of a quirky and beloved homeless man on Christmas Eve, might give the D.C. legislation a backer and breathe life into federal bills that died in 2007.

D.C. attacks included an incident in October at McPherson Square that was followed by another in November in the 2100 block of K Street NW. In both cases, the victims were sleeping when they were repeatedly struck in the head. They were injured, one seriously, but survived.

Being struck on the head killed Yoshio Nakada, 61, as he lay cocooned Dec. 24 in a sleeping bag in a neighborhood bounded by the Kennedy Center and the Watergate complex.

In many cases, such attacks are not reported to police. Pirtle said he did not report the attacks he endured because neither he nor most of his street friends trust police.

"I knew one guy who tried to report it, but police wouldn't take his report," Pirtle said. "And the reality is that most victims don't feel like there's much of a chance of anyone doing anything about it, even if they do report it."

Underreporting of the crime is the biggest enemy of the legislation, said Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. Many people don't believe the problem exists, he said.

His organization began its survey of homeless people in an effort to assess the attack rate more accurately. Since it began taking the survey in 1999, the group said, the numbers have increased steadily.

The trend picked up speed when the "Bumfights" series of videos was posted on YouTube, Stoops said. The videos, produced from 2002 through 2006, showed homeless people being beaten up or being paid to beat one another. Such beatings became a rite of passage or even a pastime for some, he said.

The frequency of unprovoked attacks is something that stunned even Mary Ann Luby, an attorney for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless who has spent years working with the homeless population.

"I was shocked when this was revealed," Luby said. "I helped with those vulnerability surveys on people, and talking to them, it was kind of like, it was no big deal that they were attacked. Their sense of worth is so minimal. I talked to guys who were beaten up with pipes, spit at, food thrown at them, passers-by kicking them. Really trashy stuff."

For years, Luby had heard stories from homeless women about being raped. But she said she did not realize there was another level of violence, seemingly based only the fact that the victims were homeless.

Under hate crime laws, violators are subject to additional penalties if their crime is motivated by another person's race, color, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or national origin.

One bill in the House of Representatives (HR2216) would add homelessness to that list. Another measure (HR2217) would require federal law enforcement agencies to track such attacks.

Only three jurisdictions have hate crime laws that include the homeless: Seattle, Maine and Alaska. Maryland lawmakers considered similar legislation last year but ultimately killed the bill. Many opponents said they worried that adding homeless people would diminish the gravity of attacks on members of minority groups.

"I think people opposed to this believe that homelessness is a choice, unlike race or ethnicity," Pirtle said. "That's what was once said about sexual orientation, too."