Homelessness is not a crime! Help us stop the Hungarian Parliament from enacting the criminalization of homelessness in the nation's Constitution.

* If you live in Hungary, join the demonstration against the 4th amendment of the constitution on March 9, 2013 at 3pm in Alkotmány utca! Spread the news, invite your friends!

Fidesz-KDNP, the ruling party coalition in Hungary, intends to enact the criminalization of homelessness in the Hungarian constitution. This step is the culmination of the two-year-long campaign of vengeance that the ruling powers have waged against one of the most vulnerable and poorest social groups in the country: homeless people living in the streets.

We are very happy to announce that the Hungarian Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court, has confirmed what The City is for All has represented for years: „The mere fact that someone lives in public space does not infringe on other people’s rights, does not cause damage and does not endanger the habitual use of space or public order” – as a result, punishing street homelessness is unconstitutional. The decision of the Constitutional Court is a victory for the rule of law, for homeless people and for everyone who has spoken out against the public persecution of homeless people over the years.

The socio-spatial exclusion of street homeless people is a powerful trend in many cities all over the world. While according to Doherty et al. (2008), these processes are less pervasive in Europe than in the US, a number of post-socialist countries stand out with a revival of anti-homeless policies. Hungary, in particular, has recently experienced a surge in exclusionary practices and policies both locally and nationally. From a broader perspective, since Hungary’s transition from state socialism to neoliberal capitalism in the 1980s, there has been a general tendency towards institutionalizing the exclusion and criminalization of poor and marginalized groups. In the following, we will first look at the history of homelessness in Hungary over the past decades, then we will give an overview of the responses the state has offered as well as the reasons for the growing criminalization of homelessness.

„As a Hungarian citizen, and as a homeless person,
I wanted to take a stand against these laws which punish people for being poor and without a proper home.
- Ferenc Sziráki, a homeless participant of the sit-in

The first court ruling about the sit-in that took place in October 2011 against the criminalization of homelessness – in which several members of The City is for All (AVM) took part – was announced today. According to the judge, the activists protesting criminalization are guilty of misdemeanor. The members of AVM our proud of what they did: if we need to, we will engage in civil disobedience again, and we encourage other groups of the democratic opposition to do the same.

The City is for All has been fighting against the exclusion and police harassment of homeless people since its founding. Our first protest in 2009 was directed against the ex-mayor of Budapest’s 11th district (a member of the “socialist” party), who announced the establishment of “homeless-free zones”. Since then, the penalization of homelessness became official government policy. The ruling neo-conservative party, Fidesz, considers homeless people second-class citizens and criminals. First the city assembly of Budapest passed an ordinance that made it a misdemeanor to sleep in public spaces. This was followed by a law passed by the Parliament, which made sleeping rough punishable with jail.

Several members of our group took part in the sit-in in the office of Máté Kocsis, who was one of the sponsors of the law about the imprisonment of those sleeping rough, and who has been at the forefront of the current anti-homeless campaign. We sat there, altogether around 30 people, silently, and we let the police know that we would not leave until they revoke the cruel and unconstitutional law. The law was not revoked, instead Máté Kocsis called the police who arrested and fined us. Legal defense for the activists was provided by dr. Tamás Fazekas of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union. Today’s court ruling found Ferenc Sziráki, a homeless member of AVM, and one of the participants in the sit-in, guilty of “disobedience to lawful action by the authorities”, and – in consideration of his “impeccable record” – gave him a warning.

On 11 November 2011 the City is For All (AVM) held a demonstration in front of the municipality of Budapest’s 8th district claiming that local mayor Mate Kocsis repeal his proposal to impose a 530 euros fine on homeless people or 60 days of imprisonment for "residing in public places". Despite the heavy protests of local and international actors, the proposed legal amendment is still on the Parliament’s agenda, decision will be made on Monday, 14 November 2011. When the performance was over, citizens expressed their solidary with AVM with a sit-in in the municipality building protesting the punishment of homeless citizens for their social circumstances. Dozens of police arrived at the scene in the end to get the activists out of the building.

Dear Friends all over the world,
 
The City is for All is a grassroots group fighting for the right to housing in Hungary. We are now asking for your solidarity with and support for Hungarian homeless people in the face of an increasingly difficult situation. Some of you may have heard about the sequence of increasingly oppressive actions over the past year against homeless citizens by the local and national government in Hungary. Let us first briefly summarize what has happened in Hungary since December 2010 regarding the repression and criminalization of homeless people.

On 17 October, The City is for All (AVM) held a major demonstration against a government proposal to impose a €500 fine or imprisonment on people who are found “residing in public places” twice over the course of 6 months. According to AVM, the proposal is unconstitutional and inhumane, since it punishes homeless people for not having appropriate housing.

A whole series of repressive measures against homeless people preceded the proposal in the past year. In December 2010 the Ministry of Interior introduced legal amendments that made it possible for local mayors to punish “residing in public places”. Istvan Tarlós, the mayor of Budapest did not wait long to come up with an order that forbade “residing in public places” in the capital. The fine imposed by the local ordinance was €180. Despite the fact that the ombudsperson found the local ordinance unconstitutional, district mayor Máté Kocsis started to enforce it vehemently in the 8th district of Budapest, arresting hundreds of homeless people in the course of a few weeks in October, 2011. Clearly, Kocsis’s aim was to harass homeless people until they leave his district. Kocsis was also among the signatories to the aforementioned proposal to imprison homeless people, which was discussed by the Parliament on October 17.

500-1000 people attended the Monday demonstration, which was also closely followed by Hungarian and international media. The participants were quite diverse proving that the criminalization of homelessness is an issue that concerns all, not only homeless people. The demonstration started with a young Hungarian poet reading out her piece inspired by the repressive anti-homeless measures of the past months. This was followed by a performance that demonstrated the consequences of the new criminalization proposal if it enters into law. Hundreds of participants lay down on the ground in front of the Parliament, while activists dressed as representatives of the police tried to take them to jail.