Local governments will be allowed to enforce bans on unhoused people sleeping outdoors, the United States Supreme Court ruling decided on Friday.
The case originated in the Oregon town of Grants Pass, which appealed a ruling striking down local ordinances that fined people $295 for sleeping in public parks. The Supreme Court decision overturned a 2018 California appeals court ruling that found such laws amount to cruel and unusual punishment when shelter space is lacking, thus violating the 8th Amendment.
Now, the court stated that the punishments imposed by Grants Pass do not qualify as cruel or unusual, given the city “imposes only limited fines for first-time offenders, an order temporarily barring an individual from camping in a public park for repeat offenders, and a maximum sentence of 30 days in jail for those who later violate an order.”
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It was also suggested that The Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause focuses on what kind of punishment may be imposed after a criminal conviction, not whether a government may criminalize particular behavior.
With other clauses, Justice Neil Gorsuch delivered the opinion of the Court that “the enforcement of generally applicable laws regulating camping on public property” does not violate the 8th Amendment.
The decision is expected to largely influence the west coast and California particularly, which has about a third of the homeless population in the United States (181,000 people) and more than half of all “unsheltered individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness” in the nation (53,169 people.)
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the Supreme Court’s decision is “disappointing” and called it a “crisis.”
"This ruling must not be used as an exclusive for cities across the country to attempt to arrest their way out of this problem or hide the homelessness crisis in neighboring cities or in jail."
"The only way to address this crisis is to bring people indoors with housing and supportive services," Bass said. However, it’s not easy given the shortage of shelter supplies in the city.
In 2023, Los Angeles had the largest number of people experiencing homelessness chronically in the country, accounting for 21% of the national total, while the number has shown an increasing trend over the years.
According to The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), the number of homeless people in LA went from 41,980 in 2022 to 46,260 in 2023. In an updated figure, LAHSA said the number of unsheltered people in Los Angeles County slightly decreased compared to last year.
Simultaneously, California had the largest increase with nearly a thousand more individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness.
"It is frustrating to have more people fall into homelessness even as we are investing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and resources into efforts to bring people inside," L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn said last year.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor also recognized the dire situation of "half a million Americans who live unsheltered every night" and wrote a dissent arguing how "Grants Pass’s Ordinances criminalize being homeless."
“The Ordinances’ purpose, text, and enforcement confirm that they target status, not conduct. For someone with no available shelter, the only way to comply with the Ordinances is to leave Grants Pass altogether,” she wrote.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, however, said the Supreme Court decision gives states and local officials the authority to clear “unsafe encampments” and “to make spaces occupied by unhoused people safer for those within and near them.”
“This decision removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials,” he said, suggesting how they’ve been embroiled in years-long lawsuits blocking their efforts to clear encampments that pose health and safety concerns.
Just this week, California was granted over $16 million for affordable housing, with Los Angeles County receiving $6.7 million.
Newsom also mentioned how California is investing $1 billion as part of the state’s Encampment Resolution Fund (ERF) to help move individuals experiencing homelessness out of dangerous encampments and into shelter and housing.
