07/07/2024
As much as 20% of the U.S. homeless are Veterans.
Look what OUR SCOTUS did last week.........
................................06//28/2024 ..................................
June 28, 2024
In a landmark ruling that will have significant nationwide
ramifications
the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for local
governments to more
aggressively enforce camping bans and punish homeless people
for sleeping outside, even when shelter space is lacking.
The court’s conservative justices in the 6-3 decision sided with
the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, saying that the city’s
enforcement of camping bans on public property did not amount
to “cruel and unusual punishment” and did not violate the Eighth
Amendment.
UC Berkeley experts in social welfare, public health, law and
policy disagree, saying the decision will increase the distress of
homeless people and force them to live in more dangerous places.
While the case most directly involved the policies of a small city
just north of the California-Oregon border, the details have been
closely watched across the country.
Liberal California leaders and conservative Republican lawmakers
alike had argued that existing laws made it difficult for them to
manage homeless encampments and enforce rules for an
increasing number of unhoused people sleeping on the streets.
Friday’s decision is likely to change that in a major way,
“The Court has greenlighted the criminalization of homelessness,
which research shows is counterproductive and inhumane,” said
Jeffrey Selbin, a Berkeley Law professor and faculty director for
the Policy Advocacy Clinic. “As the dissent and even the majority
noted, state and local lawmakers are not required to go down
that path.
This case will be a Rorschach test for elected officials: Will they
redouble their efforts to provide shelter and housing, or fall back
on laws that punish people for being homeless?”
