By Jonathan Allen and Liya Cui
(Reuters) – Civil rights groups warned that Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the constitutionality of punishing people who sleep outside would increase the number of homeless people. At the same time, some politicians welcomed the authority to clear the tent camps that have become increasingly common across the country.
The court’s six-member conservative majority ruled that ordinances punishing people for sleeping on the streets, even when shelter beds are not available, do not violate the U.S. Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual” punishment.
Homeless advocacy groups said the ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which also cited and criticized a related case known as Martin v. Boise, criminalized homelessness and poverty in the many U.S. cities that have a shortage of affordable housing. On any given night, the government estimates that some 600,000 people in the U.S. are homeless.
As the court noted, the states with the highest rates of unsheltered homelessness — California, Oregon, Hawaii, Arizona and Nevada — are in the West, where both the Grants Pass and Boise cases originated before moving to the San Francisco established 9th US went. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Today’s ruling is shameful and will undoubtedly worsen homelessness,” Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign director for the nonprofit National Homelessness Law Center in Washington, said in an interview. “We know that throwing homeless people in jail or giving them hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines traps them in a cycle of poverty and homelessness forever.”
He said that just because the Supreme Court said cities and state legislatures could punish homeless people for sleeping outdoors doesn’t mean they should. In the court’s majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, “Nothing in today’s decision prevents states, cities, and counties from going a step further and refusing to criminalize public camping altogether.”
Gorsuch said jurisdictions are adopting a range of policies to address homelessness, including building more affordable housing and shelters and enacting camping bans.
Some politicians struggling with large encampments in Western cities said the ruling brought legal clarity to policies they could use to clear camps they deemed unsafe.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, was among the leaders who had backed officials in Grants Pass, a small Oregon town, in their effort to defend their policy of fining people $295 for sleeping in public with a blanket or pillow, and jailing repeat offenders for up to 30 days.
“This decision removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years and limited their ability to take common-sense measures to protect the safety and well-being of our communities,” Newsom said in a statement.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, called the ruling disappointing and joined calls from advocacy groups for more affordable housing.
“This ruling should not be used as an excuse for cities across the country to try to buy their way out of this problem or hide the homelessness crisis in neighboring cities or in jails,” Bass, the mayor of California’s largest city, said in a statement.
In his statement welcoming the court’s opinion, Newsom also noted that his state spending is aimed at getting people out of “dangerous encampments” and into housing.
The National Homelessness Law Center said it is urging the U.S. government to invest $365 billion to expand access to affordable housing, including rental assistance for the poorest households.
Ed Johnson, the Oregon Law Center litigation director who represented the people suing the city of Grants Pass, said affordable housing was the only solution to the homelessness crisis.
“The legal battle on this issue will continue today and every day until cities stop punishing their homeless residents for their efforts to survive,” he said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen and Liya Cui in New York; Editing by Donna Bryson and Daniel Wallis)
