Supreme Court to Decide if Homelessness Can be Treated as a Crime

By Laura Busch

For the first time in decades, the issue of homelessness has reached the country’s highest court. The Supreme Court recently heard arguments on April 22nd in Grants Pass v. Johnson, and the court’s final decision in the case could have national implications on how states and cities regulate their homeless populations and encampments.

Grants Pass is a small city in Oregon that, like many across the country, has a shortage of affordable housing and, in their case, also has no permanent shelter. The city prohibits sleeping in public and enforces this law with costly fines and 30-day jail sentences. This type of law isn’t uncommon, in fact, according to the National Homelessness Law Center (NHLC), 15 states have similar laws and per NPR, Tennessee goes so far as to treat public sleeping as a felony punishable with up to six years in prison.

The issue for the Supreme Court is, are these laws in violation of the Eight Amendment which protects against cruel and unusual punishment. Many lower courts have concluded that people should not be prosecuted or punished for a situation that is more a consequence of a lack of affordable housing and high barriers imposed for securing any adequate housing that may be available. It becomes a “human rights” issue when someone’s unsheltered status alone could make them criminal.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition found in 2023, “a national shortage of 7.3M affordable and available rental homes for low-income renters.” These renters are defined as having income that is 30% of their area median income. This same organization cites New Jersey as having only 30 available and affordable rental units for every 100 extremely low income renters seeking housing.

Instead of local and state governments investing in more affordable housing development many are choosing to arrest and incarcerate people experiencing homelessness. Per NHLC, between 2006 and 2019, there was a 92% increase in citywide bans on camping, a 103% increase in loitering bans and a 213% increase in bans on living in vehicles. This trend toward criminalization is a decision that is costing taxpayers annually $83,000 per person according to an article published by Vera.

Regarding the Court’s decision, a New York Times article noted “the court appeared split along ideological lines in the case,” with some feeling that the justices are leaning in support of Grants Pass. With the Court’s term winding down, their decision in Grants Pass is expected to come at any time.

In the meantime, we must not forget that people experiencing homelessness do not choose to be unsheltered and should not be punished. Housing is a human right.