Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- California may be surf central, but a study released Wednesday indicated it also is the "meanest" state for poor and homeless people. The study by the National Coalition for the Homeless found that Little Rock, Ark., Atlanta, Cincinnati, Las Vegas and Gainesville, Fla., were the top five cities in terms of homeless civil rights violations, while many of the cities cited had what the organization described as "significant histories" of these violations. Advertisement In terms of the "meanest" states, California was followed by Florida, Hawaii and Texas. "There needs to be an end to the patterns of discrimination we have seen repeated in many of these cities, year after year," Michael Stoops, NCH's director of community organizing, said in a statement announcing the findings. NCH's National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project, comprised of local advocates in communities nationwide, compiled data from 179 communities in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The study found that 51 of the cities studied had legislated new ordinances targeting homeless people since August 2003, while 57 cities conducted large sweeps or destroyed the campsites of homeless people. Advertisement
