A bill now in the Maryland state Senate would seek to more firmly deter attacks against homeless people by adding them to those protected under the state’s hate crimes law.

“It’s a statement of a society’s values – it’s a statement about ... who is it in our society that is entitled to those types of protections,” said Robert Nasdor, legal director of Baltimore’s Homeless Persons Representation Project.

“Hate crimes” laws stiffen the existing penalties for violent crimes in which an attack is motivated by bias. Maryland law currently offers this enhanced protection to victims targeted because of race, color, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and national origin.

The bill, introduced by state Sen. Alex X. Mooney (R-Frederick) at the beginning of March, is the first bill in any state to propose protecting homeless persons under the hate crimes law.

This bill comes in the wake of several high-profile attacks. In January teens beat a homeless man to death in Fort Lauderdale, and in early March a homeless man was brutally beaten and set on fire in Boston and someone videotaped a beating of a homeless man in San Francisco. Last year, there were 86 reported acts of violence against homeless persons in 22 states, resulting in 73 injuries and 13 deaths.

Michael Stoops, the acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, supports the bill and said that he thinks the bill has a chance. “I think because of the national stuff happening it gives the bill some momentum,” he said.

Perhaps because the most recent publicized attack on a homeless person in Maryland was more than four years ago, Maryland’s homeless people feel safe.

Outreach workers in Frederick County report a history of low-level harassment – sometimes simple vandalism of homeless camps in wooded areas, but sometimes more sinister. Todd Johnson, who coordinates homeless services for Frederick Community Action, said he knows of about a dozen fires at such camps in the last 16 years.

“We don’t know if it’s done maliciously, if it’s homeless-on-homeless, poor-on-poor, or wilding gangs,” he said, adding that there have been too many to ignore. “Lots of people double up or triple up in a camp. They watch each other’s back, and there are very few lone campers.”

In Baltimore, homeless people do not report the fear of being targeted as a primary concern. Bigger concerns are street crime and homeless-on-homeless crime – mostly theft and the occasional minor assault. But the city is seen as a far more dangerous place than are Maryland’s suburbs and rural areas. Several homeless men sleep near the Camden Yards baseball stadium because the security cameras give them a feeling of safety.

And while the police presence downtown and near the Inner Harbor brings more enforcement of laws against panhandling and other activities, it is also thought to scare away anyone meaning to harm homeless people.

Elsewhere in the city, homeless people find shelter in more isolated spots, such as abandoned buildings. Those places may be too scary or remote for attackers seeking easy targets.

Still, whatever the motivation, attacks on homeless people are not unheard of. One Baltimore man reported having been beaten a few times by groups of young men. And another homeless man, who uses a wheelchair, said he remembered seeing a crowd of young men, who looked like they were “up to no good,” approaching him. One of the crowd called off the group because of the wheelchair.

It’s this kind of fear, and this kind of incident, that the Senate bill’s supporters say they hope to discourage. Adding homeless people to Maryland’s hate crimes law would help address this concern, supporters say, because state authorities are directed to report and track incidents covered by the law. And that, said Nasdor, would in itself send a powerful message.

“It’s not just about enhanced criminal penalties,” he said. “What we’re talking about are the full rights of citizenship, and that homeless people shouldn’t be treated any differently than anybody else.”

The tracking provision, Nasdor said, could help Maryland know the scope of the problem. And supporters hope that establishing a vigorous and reliable police response would help break down the distrust homeless people often feel for law enforcement.

Maryland Senate Bill 539, “Hate Crimes – Expanding Prohibitions and Protected Classes of People,” is before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. Committee action is expected in the next few weeks. You can learn more about Senate Bill 539 by going to http://mlis.state.md.us/.

Dan Andersen conducted research for this story.