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Abstract
The purpose of this study is to better understand why cities in the United States are increasingly employing anti-homeless laws by testing three established qualitative theories. This study uses quantitative methods to investigate the variance in the total number of anti-homeless laws in a city, with a sample size of 102 cities. This study examines 15 independent variables to test the three established theories in question. The first is a theory of homeless and criminal threat, the second is a theory of neoliberal growth, and the third theory considers the impact of cultural shifts and gentrification within a city. Results indicate that all theories need to be revised, that cultural-political indicators have the most effect on anti-homeless law growth and stagnating or rising property crime rates and stagnant or falling housing values also have a significant effect. However, the majority of variance in the number of anti-homeless laws in a given city remains unknown.
