West Coast Cities Skirt Federal Judge's Ruling Against Criminalizing Homeless Camps
"West coast cities try to skirt judge’s ruling preventing them from criminalizing homeless camps." Cities are finding ways to work around a federal judge's ruling, keeping laws that punish people for being homeless. By Danielle McLean, Think Progress, Sept. 14, 2018.
Cities are largely ignoring a federal appeals court’s recent ruling that Boise, Idaho’s ban on people camping out in public spaces was illegal, and are doubling down on their own similar laws that push people who are homeless even further into distressed living situations.
The judge ruled that there was not enough shelter space throughout Boise that didn’t have religious requirements attached. People who are experiencing homelessness sleeping on public spaces when there is a lack of available shelter space was, as the court described, a “universal and unavoidable consequences of being human” and arresting them for doing so is a cruel and unusual punishment.
Major cities in the ninth circuit’s jurisdiction, including Seattle, Portland, Tacoma, and San Diego, all say their laws do not explicitly ban camping the same way Boise’s does and therefore are not impacted by the court’s rulings and have no plans to change or repeal them. But homeless-persons’ advocates and researchers, who have long battled such laws, say in light of the ruling, those cities that are enforcing or considering such bans should reconsider.
“If you have a practice like this, where you are arresting and prosecuting people for sleeping on the streets when you haven’t given them any other options, you can be liable for a lawsuit,” said Steve Berg, Vice President for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Cities and towns across the country have essentially criminalized homelessness by imposing local laws that outlaw sleeping in public. Yet many of those cities do not have enough beds at shelters to accommodate the number of people that live without homes in their community. And often times the beds that are available have restrictions related to religion, sobriety, gender, or even pets that are prohibitive and keep people out..
A group of people who were homeless sued Boise almost a decade ago over its ban. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled just last week in their favor. The court’s decision could impact similar laws in cities within its jurisdiction, which includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. The ruling found that a city cannot prosecute people for living in public if there are more people than available shelter beds (available beds cannot have barriers like religious mandates). Doing so would be considered a cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.- More.
https://thinkprogress.org/west-coast-cities-continue-criminalizing-homeless-camps-despite-appeals-court-ruling-8afe67f0f827/
- Tents and belongings of the homeless line a street in downtown Los Angeles, California on June 25, 2018, as a United Nations report on poverty and inequality says 185 million Americans are living in extreme poverty.
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