The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Monday in the most significant case in decades regarding the rights of people experiencing homelessness.
in Grants Pass vs. Johnson, The Supreme Court will decide whether fines, tickets or jailing people for camping on public property constitutes cruel and unusual punishment when they have nowhere else to go. A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs would make it easier for communities to clear tent encampments of homeless people, even when there is no housing or shelter available.
More than 650,000 people in the United States experience homelessness on any given night, and approximately 40% of them sleep outdoors on the street, in cars, in parks, train stations, and other environments not primarily designed for human habitation. Masu. Federal data released in late 2023 shows homelessness is increasing in most states.
In two major decisions over the past six years, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that criminalizing homelessness when a city lacks adequate shelter or housing violates the Eighth Amendment. But as the homelessness crisis worsens, government leaders asked the Supreme Court to reconsider, arguing that the previous ruling was wrongly decided and could no longer safely manage the community.
“While the Ninth Circuit and the defendants seek to downplay how this decision ties the hands of local leaders, their arguments only confirm the decision’s ambiguity and unenforceability,” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a court brief filed in September.
Leaders like Newsom have said they don't want to criminalize the homeless, but that would most likely happen in some areas if the Supreme Court overturns it. Grants Pass. Some leaders in other cities have made it more clear that they want to make their neighborhoods so inhospitable that homeless people eventually leave.
It was the same in Grants Pass, Oregon. In 2013, the Grants Pass City Council held a meeting to “Identify Solutions to the Current Vagrancy Problem,” in which participants considered strategies to remove homeless residents.of city council president Grants Pass' goal is to “make people in our city feel uncomfortable enough that they want to continue down the road,” he said.
Grants Pass began imposing penalties aggressively, levying a $295 fine for camping on public land, increasing to $537.60 if unpaid. After two counts of indictment, police could find the homeless man guilty of trespassing, which could result in up to 30 days in jail and a new $1,250 fine. The original lead plaintiff was Grants Pass v. johnson Before her death at age 62, she had been fined more than $5,000 for living outdoors.
It is not clear what the Supreme Court will rule, but what is clear is that many cities grant pass What has fallen is simply the lack of adequate housing and shelter for the number of people currently homeless within our borders.
“The crux of the problem is that we're focusing on closing down encampments without access to housing,” said Charlie Willison, a professor at Cornell University who studies the influence of police on urban homelessness policy. Ta. “The reality is that asking people to move when they have nowhere to go does not provide them with housing and does not reduce or end homelessness. And where do people go? Will they go somewhere that the police won't find them and move around a lot that night?
Wison's research found that 22 percent of mayors in more than 120 cities have a homelessness officer within their police department. Even among cities that have homelessness assistance teams located elsewhere, most still include a formal role for police. Another study she co-published last year found that 76% of homeless assistance teams formally involve police.
If the Supreme Court rules in their favor, there will be further pressure to criminalize homeless people. grant pass Plaintiffs, criminalization is not inevitable. Jesse Rabinowitz, a spokesperson for the National Homeless Law Center, pointed to states' responses to the Supreme Court's reversal. Roe vs. Wade As an example of an alternative path.
“Just because a state can ban abortion; [after Roe’s overturn] “That doesn't mean all do that, and we've seen many states pass constitutional amendments that protect abortion,” he said. “The exact same thing could happen with homelessness, but right now we're focused on April 22nd.”
Why could further criminalization occur if the Supreme Court rules against the defendant?
The more interactions a homeless person has with police, the more likely they are to be charged with a crime. Most cities now have policies that link homeless assistance to police enforcement, with police either influencing local homelessness policy or being integrated directly into homeless assistance teams.
Even though police conduct homeless outreach primarily to connect individuals with services and shelter, such outreach may also involve charging people with camping violations and other crimes. There is a possibility. “Whenever the police are involved, the potential for punitive enforcement arises,” Whisson and his colleagues wrote. “For example, if this individual is experiencing a behavioral health crisis, the risk of punitive enforcement is even worse.”
Several amicus briefs filed with the Supreme Court have raised concerns about criminalizing homeless people with mental and behavioral health needs. Currently, more than one-fifth of people experiencing homelessness have a serious mental illness, such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, and the U.S. Department of Justice has identified an “unmet behavioral health They found that “prevalence of need” is “a major factor in why people experiencing homelessness become homeless.” They tend to have frequent (and often repeated) interactions with law enforcement. ”
The American Psychiatric Association says that police They are also more likely to use excessive force when dealing with mentally ill and unhoused people. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, even if “well-intentioned law enforcement responders” respond to a call for help, “the disturbing presence of police vehicles or armed officers” can escalate the situation. It is said that there are many.
It would be easier for local governments to fine, ticket, and arrest homeless people. grant pass Homeless people who already cannot afford housing will find it harder to obtain permanent housing later on.
A criminal record can make it more difficult to find a job, find stable housing, and receive government benefits. Among those who do find work, those with records typically face significant earnings penalties.
Payment of fines can worsen the already precarious financial situation of the unhoused and prolong their homelessness. One study of people experiencing homelessness in Seattle found that those with outstanding legal debt spent about two years without stable housing compared to those without such debt. Turns out it's been a long time.
“It's ironic to impose fines on bankrupt people.” said the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in its brief to the Supreme Court. “Unpaid debts can impair a household's ability to pay a deposit to move into permanent housing and appear on credit reports, which landlords use to deny housing.” research found that approximately one in five landlords who set conditions for accepting rental assistance impose credit score requirements.
Experts say other “collateral consequences” that could result from punishing people who violate anti-sleeping ordinances include revocation of the right to vote, the right to renew a driver's license, or the loss of probation. It states that there is.
Some supporters predict the policy will be overturned. grant pass As one group warned in a Supreme Court brief, the absence of viable housing alternatives could lead to the construction of large-scale concentration camps “similar to refugee camps that currently exist in other countries.” .
Already, some city governments are considering creating so-called sanctioned encampments, where people would be allowed to set up tents, but not tents. Somewhere else. Whether such campgrounds are legal under the Constitution is an open question, but the Supreme Court's decision could clarify it.
what can you do to help
If the Supreme Court overturns grant pass (and the previous decisions that presupposed that — Martin vs. Boise), there will be more pressure on leaders to enact penalties for people sleeping in tent encampments, but that does not mean such penalties will necessarily occur.
Instead, states and communities could invest in building more housing and shelters, including “tiny houses,” transitional housing options that are faster and easier to construct than traditional facilities. According to some studies, Enforcing anti-homeless laws can be more expensive than finding housing, and fundamental budgetary concerns may push governments in a less punitive direction.
“Using a highly reactive, criminalizing approach to homelessness may actually be more costly than engaging in long-term prevention programs,” said Katherine Levine Einstein, a political science professor at Boston University. “There's a gender,” he told Box.
New restraints on local government could be brought about by the public. Individuals can decide to resist and speak out against policies they feel are cruel or ineffective, and to help lobby for more humane alternatives. Vox previously reported on additional steps individuals can take to help their unhoused neighbors.
To support homeless people, leaders need to not only address the housing crisis, but also increase support such as rental subsidies to prevent more people from falling into homelessness. Many mayors feel that there is a lack of funding to actually solve the homelessness crisis, and many of the organizations that receive federal funding to provide homeless assistance actually have local It does not have the authority to help formulate policy.
Some cities are considering soliciting community feedback on ways to create more humane outcomes for the homeless. Individual. For example, citizen “complaint portals” that many cities have set up often encourage more police-centric strategies, while some cities, like Los Angeles, instead seek more deep-rooted public feedback. We are experimenting with a “help portal'' to recruit people. -Be a person who has experienced homelessness.
To ensure communities support homeless people, governments and nonprofits need to invest in better research into the experiences of unsheltered people and push for greater transparency in policing. There is.
The current lack of good research makes it difficult to develop good policy or even to protest against bad policy. “What happens to people without shelter if local governments pass camping bans?” asked Levin Einstein. “We don't have that kind of data systematically.”