Lower courts have said it's unconstitutional to punish people for sleeping outside if no shelter is available. Cities say these rulings have paralyzed their efforts to manage growing tent encampments.

In April, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a major case that could reshape how cities manage homelessness. The legal issue is whether they can fine or arrest people for sleeping outside if there’s no shelter available. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has deemed this cruel and unusual punishment, and this case is a pivotal challenge to that ruling.

The high court declined to take up a similar case in 2019. But since then, homelessness rates have climbed relentlessly. Street encampments have grown larger and have expanded to new places, igniting intense backlash from residents and businesses. Homelessness and the lack of affordable housing that’s helping to drive it have become key issues for many voters.

The case, Grants Pass v. Johnson, could have dramatic implications for the record number of people living in tents and cars across the United States.

  • lolcatnipEnglish
    6·
    4 months ago

    There is no “somewhere else” for them to go to, just a bunch of other places where people don’t want them either. Seems like everywhere in America just wants to shuffle homeless people around without doing much (or often anything) to actually solve the problem.

    • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      4 months ago

      There’s nothing a city can realistically do except shuffle them around - providing assistance simply motivates more homeless people to arrive from other places until the assistance is exhausted and the city is left worse off, with less money and more homeless people.

      • lolcatnipEnglish
        3·
        4 months ago

        Not criminalizing homelessness for starters.

        The actual solution is to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place, but that would be “socialism” and therefore too unpopular to actually implement. But housing-first solutions seem to work great every time they’re tried.

        • JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee
          1·
          4 months ago

          I hear your point but I am not sure how you would prevent people from becoming homeless. Like, how do you suggest implementing this? Seriously. (Trying to get beyond the easy platitudes and idealism you suggest.) Section 8 housing has been available in the US since 1937. Apparently that hasn’t worked. There is also the HUD Exchange:

          https://www.hudexchange.info/homelessness-assistance/