Conservative lawmakers in Hungary have outlawed homelessness. The crackdown comes as the number of people living on the streets of the country’s capital, Budapest, has grown to about 10,000. Charitable organizations have blasted the new law, calling it unenforceable. They also say it’s unrealistic to expect shelters and hostels to take in everyone in need because they don’t have enough beds.

 

Anyone caught violating the law will receive a warning for the first offense. After that they will be subject to a fine of $600 or face prison. One man was reportedly charged with “sitting around on a stone in the company of several of his peers.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

The Criminalization of the Homeless in Hungary (by Kevin James Moore, Budapest Report)

Budapest Mayor’s Campaign Against the Homeless (Contrarian Hungarian)