Most Important Court Case About Homelessness Ever

The Supreme Court of the United States heard the case City of Grants Pass v. Johnson on April 22nd, 2024. A decision will be made by June 30th.

• What is this case? some text
  • This case will essentially decide if cities have the right to criminalize homelessness. Currently, the rights of homeless citizens are protected under the Eighth Amendment based on the ruling of a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in 2018.
  • In the 2018 decision of Martin v. the City of Boise, the panel of judges ruled that "the Eighth Amendment prohibits the imposition of criminal penalties for sitting, sleeping, or lying outside on public property for homeless individuals who cannot obtain shelter."

• The city of Grants Passsome text
  • Located in southern Oregon, about 2 hours south of Eugene and 5 hours north of Sacramento, it has a population of approximately 39,0000 people, including approximately 600 homeless people. The city is like many other cities in this country in that it does not have enough shelter for all of the people who need housing, causing many people to set up camp on the streets or sleep in public places like parks.
  • Grants Pass has a municipal code prohibiting people from sleeping in public areas, which I have included below. some text
    • 5.61.020 Sleeping on Sidewalks, Streets, Alleys, or Within Doorways Prohibited some text
      • A. No person may sleep on public sidewalks, streets, or alleyways at any time as a matter of individual and public safety  
      • B.  No person may sleep in any pedestrian or vehicular entrance to public or private property abutting a public sidewalk  
      • C.  In addition to any other remedy provided by law, any person found violating this section may be immediately removed from the premises.
    • 5.61.030 Camping Prohibited No person may occupy a campsite in or upon any sidewalk, street, alley, lane, public right of way, park, bench, or any other publicly-owned property or under any bridge or viaduct unless some text
      • (i) otherwise expressly authorized code this code, (ii) by a formal declaration of the City Manager in emergency circumstances, or (iii) upon Council resolution, the Council may exempt a special event from the prohibitions of this section if the Council finds such exemption to be in the public interest and consistent with Council goals and notices and by conditions imposed by the Community Services Director. Any conditions imposed will require that the applicant provide evidence of adequate insurance coverage and agree to indemnify the city for any liability, damage, or expense incurred by the city due to the applicant's activities. Any findings by the Council shall specify the exact dates and location covered by the exemption
    • 6.46.090 Camping in Parks some text
      • A. It is unlawful for any person to camp, as defined in GPMC Title 5, within the boundaries of the City parks  (Ord  19-5752)
      • B. Overnight parking of vehicles shall be unlawful. For the purposes of this section, anyone who parks or leaves a car parked for two consecutive hours or who remains within one of the parks as herein defined for purposes of camping as defined in this section for two straight hours without permission from the City Council, between the hours of midnight and 6:00 a.m. shall be considered in violation of this Chapter".
  • A district court certified a class of plaintiffs of involuntarily unhoused persons living in Grants Pass and concluded that, based on the unavailability of shelter beds, the city's anti-camping and anti-sleeping ordinances violated the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause  A panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed. The Ninth Circuit denied rehearing.

• Why is the case critical? some text
  • In effect, if Grants Pass is successful in overturning the Circuit Court ruling, then cities would have the ability to create code that enables them to criminalize homeless people. They could begin to arrest people simply for having no place to go and no shelters in their town.
  • Once homeless people are arrested, they are now involved in a for-profit prison industry that has numerous examples of exploiting the labor of prisoners while paying them. Here is a link to an article documenting prisons' use of penal labor for companies and products that you will recognize:

• What is the solution?some text
  • The solution starts with a significant societal shift in what we deem valuable. All life is inherently valuable as life is a gift, but in the American capitalist system, people are often exploited to generate a return for the ownership class. In other words, having a job. The way we think of jobs in this country is backward. For jobs to exist, employers need to make more money from your labor than they pay you for the job they ask you to do. This is how capitalism works. The literal definition of capitalism is "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit."
  • In philosophy it is common to question why we, as human beings, are here. No one knows for sure but I do feel certain that we do not exist solely to generate profit for the few people in the ownership class. The richest 1% have more wealth than the bottom 95% according to this article from OxFam. There is more than enough resources on this planet to ensure everyone's basic human rights are met. That is why I started Cherry Willow Apparel, to build a community of people that wnt to work together to benefit the people experiencing homelessness in this country. We need to get back to loving each other as we love ourselves. We need to encourage people to express themselves creatively without needing to monetize it. We need to come together and build community. Only when everyone has their basic human rights met can we call ourselves a successful society.

• How can you help?some text
  • Volunteer with your local non-profit or homeless shelter. It doesn't have to be a huge time commitment, but you should start consistently trying to show up and give your support.
  • When you see a homeless person on the street, stop and talk to them. Ask them their name, and take an interest in their story. They are people, no different from you or me.
  • Petition or write to your local representatives to let them know you support "housing for all" and demand the creation of more affordable housing.
  • Support and share our content and the content of those working to create awareness about homelessness, like Invisible People.

• Levitysome text
  • In researching this blog, I spent a decent amount of time on the City of Grants Pass website. Their slogan is "Live Rogue," which I find pretty hilarious as the definition of rogue is "a dishonest or unprincipled person." I'd say the city is certainly living up to its slogan since it thinks that throwing homeless people in jail is the solution. I can't think of a better way to describe someone who believes that way than dishonest & unprincipled. Morally, everyone deserves to be treated with basic human rights. Among the most fundamental of basic human rights is the right to have shelter. Together, we have more than enough resources to ensure everyone has a space to call home. When people don't have to worry about where they will sleep or where their next meal will come from, they can genuinely work on expressing themselves and being the person they want to be. Criminalizing homelessness will do precisely the opposite and cause more harm than anything else.