Noun

1. The practice of hospital employees or emergency workers releasing homeless patients on the streets instead of placing them into the custody of a relative or shelter or retaining them in a hospital where they may require expensive medical care.

Quotations

• 2007. Police probe alleged L.A. homeless dumping. MSNBC via Associated Press, February 9, 2007, Los Angeles http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17062674:

  A hospital van dropped off a homeless paraplegic man on Skid Row and left him crawling in the street with nothing more than a soiled gown and a broken colostomy bag.... Police said the incident was a case of "homeless dumping" and were questioning officials from the hospital.

• 2006. L.A. Police Allege Homeless Dumping, Associated Press, October 25, 2006, Los Angeles:

  Authorities have launched a criminal investigation into suspected dumping of homeless people on Skid Row after police witnessed ambulances leaving five people on a street there during the weekend.