OAN’s Brooke Mallory
Friday, June 28, 2024 4:13 p.m.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that cities have the right to ban homeless people from sleeping on the streets and in public spaces.
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Since at least the 1980s, many experts believe this period marked the beginning of America’s current “homelessness epidemic.”
Some prominent left-leaning commentators have suggested this was due in part to former President Ronald Reagan’s “decision to close psychiatric hospitals” after he signed Jimmy Carter’s repeal of the Mental Health System Act of 1980. Others, however, have staunchly denied this claim, pointing out that the law was repealed “with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.”
Three homeless people in Grants Pass, Oregon, have filed a lawsuit after being fined for sleeping rough and camping, police said. BBC.
During a Supreme Court hearing in April, the city argued that criminal penalties were necessary to enforce city rules banning homeless people from public places “for reasons of cleanliness and safety.”
Due to a lack of public shelters in the city, homeless residents argued that the sanctions violated the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the conservative majority, said in a ruling released Friday that the city’s camping restrictions do not cause “fear, distress or stigma.”
He also made clear that the ban focuses on conduct rather than a person’s status and does not criminalize the “mere status” of being homeless.
“Under city law, it makes no difference whether the defendant charged is homeless, a backpacker passing through town on vacation, or a student who abandons his dorm room to protest on the City Hall lawn,” Justice Gorsuch wrote.
Meanwhile, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the three liberal justices who dissented, wrote, “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime. Homelessness is a reality for too many Americans.”
But many cities welcomed the decision in statements. Grants Pass, the city at the center of the legal battle, said city officials were meeting with attorneys to consider next steps.
San Francisco said it would help neighborhoods “manage public spaces more effectively and efficiently.”
But Jennifer Friedenbach of the San Francisco Homeless Coalition said money and resources still “should be used to get people off the streets.”
“According to U.S. government statistics, about 653,000 people lost their homes in 2023, the highest number since the count began in 2007…An estimated 256,000 people were homeless on any given night across the country last year, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.” BBC report.
Shortly after the ruling, the National Alliance to End Homelessness said the ruling “sets a dangerous precedent that will disproportionately harm homeless people and give autonomy to local officials who favor pointless and costly arrest and incarceration over real solutions.”
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