I don't follow the American situation as closely as I do the Canadian, but I
do know that the
favourite model for many Canadian
lawmakers today
is the American.
In Toronto, Ontario, many, many people are now homeless due to dramatic changes in the provincial laws governing renters. And these people now on the streets are subject to further eviction because they are offensive to those who still have the money to rent, or own their homes.
The American model, as I've sometimes seen portrayed in American media--not often, mind you--is to remove the homeless to rural areas, old military bases, and the like--anywhere not to mar the Disneyland of the greatest country in the world. And this is what Canada wants to be, too.
Maybe, as blaaf suggests, America is not known for the worst abuses of vagrancy law--but weren't these laws used when Jim Crow no longer made good press?