Photo by Lisa Tran, Community Solutions
On June 28, 2024, the Supreme Court made a landmark decision in the case of Grants Pass v. Johnson on unsheltered homelessness. In a disappointing ruling, the nation’s highest court decided the U.S. Constitution does not protect people experiencing homelessness from laws that displace folks sleeping outside or in ‘encampments’. The 6-3 decision written by Justice Neil Gorsuch reinforces harmful legislation that criminalizes people who cannot access safe sleeping accommodations.
What This Means:
The Supreme Court’s ruling means that people experiencing homelessness are not protected against tickets, fines, or arrests for sleeping outside.
The ruling sets a precedent that cities enforcing anti-camping bans – even if people experiencing homelessness have no other place to go – do not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
This decision has implications for the 650,000+ people in America experiencing homelessness on any given night. Roughly 40 percent of those individuals are sleeping outside on the streets, in cars, parks, train stations, and other places not designed primarily for people, according to HUD’s 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report.
As a result of this case, local governments may feel more confident passing punitive policies with the Supreme Court’s blessing.
Grants Pass v. Johnson Background
Grants Pass v. Johnson pitted residents experiencing homelessness in Grants Pass, Oregon – a town of about 40,000 – against local officials, who said they wanted to regain control of public parks. In Grants Pass, about 600 unhoused people lived in tents or under tarps and slept on tables and benches.
Most unhoused people living outside in Grants Pass first experienced homelessness as a result of skyrocketing home prices, according to Ed Johnson, the public defender who first took the case.
The city wanted to permanently clear unhoused people out of parks, but without this ruling, it could not. A 2022 decision in a lower court ruled that people experiencing homelessness in places with insufficient shelter retain an Eighth Amendment right not to face punishment for protecting themselves from the elements.
A cohort of people experiencing homelessness in Grants Pass filed a class action lawsuit against the city, claiming that this new law would unjustly target people experiencing homelessness.
The suit climbed all the way to the Supreme Court, where the conservative majority sided with the City of Grants Pass, granting cities the right to punish unhoused people for sleeping in public, even if they have nowhere else to go.
Immediately after the decision, governments in the West Coast mobilized to affect encampments in their cities. The City of San Francisco proceeded with their plan to rid the city of encampments, while California Governor Gavin Newsom praised the court for ridding local and state law of “legal ambiguities.”
What Our Partners Are Saying
Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness: “This decision sets a dangerous precedent that will cause undue harm to people experiencing homelessness and give free rein to local officials who prefer pointless and expensive arrests and imprisonment, rather than real solutions. This ruling allows leaders to shift the burden to law enforcement. This tactic has consistently failed to reduce homelessness in the past, and it will assuredly fail to reduce homelessness in the future.”
Paulina Kusiak Daigle, Executive Director of Winter Walk: “The Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban on homeless residents sleeping outdoors is deeply troubling and will have far-reaching consequences across the nation. This ban criminalizes the act of being homeless. Local laws now impose fines and potential jail time for individuals sleeping in public spaces, whether on the streets or in their cars, using as little as a blanket for warmth or a rolled-up shirt as a pillow. Such measures punish those who are already vulnerable and marginalized. This is unconstitutional and fundamentally unjust.”
Rosanne Haggerty, President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Solutions: “The Supreme Court’s decision is deeply disappointing. Arresting or fining people for experiencing homelessness is cruel — and it won’t solve the problem. Countless studies show we can’t police homelessness out of existence. But there are proven solutions to homelessness. It takes a community-wide effort to make sure that every person experiencing homelessness is accounted for and cared for.”
Our Response
As this landmark decision shapes homelessness in America, the costs of owning a home and renting an apartment continue to increase. With rises in cost of living come increased susceptibility to homelessness. The outcome of Grants Pass v. Johnson only exacerbates this complex issue and further dehumanizes people who are experiencing homelessness.
We demand dignity and service for our young adults working hard to break the cycle of homelessness, not further punishment and criminalization. While the ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson establishes another potential barrier we’ll need to overcome, we are committed to securing a community where young adult homelessness is brief, rare, and non-recurring. We believe employment remains the key to alleviating homelessness; with further job opportunities and stable housing, young people can address the core causes that led to their homelessness. The solution to homelessness will not emerge from punishing people living on the margins. Expertise, regard, and dignity will be necessary in giving our nation’s young people another chance. Their homelessness is not a crime.
What Do We Do Now?
The Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling creates further urgency for us to advocate for the rights of our young adults experiencing homelessness. Here’s how you can take action right now:
1. Educate
Learn more about the cost of criminalizing homelessness, the Grants Pass v. Johnson case, and how the ruling might affect you and/or members of your community.
2. Connect
Help connect your peers or any young adults experiencing housing insecurity with Breaktime so we can support the folks whose right to exist might be threatened by this ruling.
Help us connect Associates and young adults in our communities with other potential resources to stay safe. Here are some of our key partners providing housing and financial support to young adults.
Boston Youth Shelters
Funding Services
Daytime Services
Youth on Fire (now part of The Home for Little Wanderers)
Rosie's Place (for women)
3. Advocate
Urge your local representatives to oppose policies that criminalize homelessness and support bills providing housing and essential services. Here’s a guide from our friends at the National Alliance to End Homelessness on how to advocate to your lawmaker.
4. Share
Help us amplify the message that criminalization doesn’t solve homelessness — it only makes it harder to escape (shoutout to our friends at Community Solutions for this helpful guide).