Report Cites Harassment of Homeless Filed at 2:02 p.m. EST WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's homeless people are increasingly being harassed by police, driven from the streets in which they beg and sleep by cities putting ``meanness'' ahead of compassion, an advocacy group's report contends. Many cities are bent on ``criminalizing homelessness'' and are failing to take advantage of existing constructive methods to treat homeless people for physical and mental problems and get them into housing and jobs, says the report by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. But affordable housing remains a principle barrier, according to the report released Monday. It is the fifth such report issued since 1991. ``While cities continue to crack down on homeless people, resources to shelter homeless people or to help them to become self-sufficient are sorely lacking,'' the report says. ``Instead of sending in the police to move and arrest these people, you can provide resources,'' said Maria Foscarinis, the center's executive director. ``Criminalizing is a quick fix, but it's not a solution. People have to go somewhere.'' The report says many cities are turning to their police forces to enforce new or old laws that limit the use of public space and restrict begging. They are targeting the homeless for selective enforcement of the law and conducting sweeps to physically remove them, the report says. It cited five cities -- Atlanta, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Tucson, Ariz. -- as being especially tough on the homeless and ``promoting the `meanest' streets.''' [end of story] Carl Remick