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Debate over criminalizing homelessness: advocates press HB104 while counties warn of preemption and liabilities
Summary
HB104 would bar enforcement of camping/anti‑sleeping rules unless adequate shelter is available and create an affirmative necessity defense for life‑sustaining activities. Supporters say criminalization harms already‑marginalized groups; counties and municipalities raised preemption, liability, and implementation concerns.
Delegate Bernice Merrick North introduced HB104 to protect unhoused Marylanders by (1) removing municipal authority to criminalize vagrancy and (2) creating an affirmative defense of necessity when people engage in life‑sustaining activities — sleeping, resting, eating, storing personal property — in a public place and have no adequate indoor alternative.
National and local homelessness and health providers, including representatives from the National Homelessness…
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