A Supreme Court ruling in the case of Grants Pass v. Johnson has led over 100 cities to pass or step up enforcement of camping bans that criminalize unhoused residents.
A Supreme Court ruling from earlier this year in the case of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson that allows cities to criminalize homelessness even when no shelter beds are available is having widespread repercussions across the country, reports Jennifer Ludden for KSMU.
According to Ludden, over 100 municipalities have passed or strengthened camping bans since the ruling. “So far, in the months since the ruling, some places with aggressive new camping bans have ramped up fines and arrests.”
Advocates for the unhoused say punitive policies only exacerbate the problem, pushing people out of safe spaces and making it harder to connect them to services. “Some cities have held firm against the Supreme Court ruling. The most prominent is Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass has pushed to move people temporarily into motels and touted success after the number of people living on the streets dropped 10% this year.” But despite renewed efforts to build new shelter beds, most U.S. cities remain short.
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