By Farrah Hassen
As the cost of housing has exploded, so has the number of people experiencing homelessness. And unfortunately, instead of trying to house people, more states and cities are criminalizing people simply for lacking a safe place to sleep.
According to the National Homelessness Law Center, almost every state restricts the conduct of people experiencing homelessness. In Missouri, sleeping on state land is a crime. A new law in Florida bans people from sleeping on public property — and requires local governments without bed space for unhoused people to set up camps far away from public services.
Laura Gutowski, from Grants Pass, Oregon, lives in a tent near the home where she resided for 25 years. Soon after her husband unexpectedly passed away, she became unhoused. “It kind of all piled on at the same time,” she told Oregon Public Broadcasting. “Flipped my world upside down.”
Grants Pass, like most cities today, lacks enough shelter beds to accommodate its unhoused population. It’s now the subject of a Supreme Court case: Grants Pass v. Johnson, which started when Grants Pass began ticketing people for sleeping in public even when there weren’t enough shelter beds.
People can be fined hundreds of dollars and face criminal charges “simply for existing without access to shelter,” said Ed Johnson, an attorney for the unhoused residents of Grants Pass. The Supreme Court’s decision will have far-reaching ramifications as communities grapple with rising homelessness and housing costs.
If the Court rules in favor of Grants Pass, local governments will get more authority to clear homeless encampments and penalize those who sleep on streets, only exacerbating the problem.
Alternatively, the Court could prohibit these “camping” bans and remove criminalization as an option. Back in 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals took that route in Martin v. City of Boise, which held that it is “cruel and unusual punishment” to criminalize homelessness when people have no other place to go.
According to the federal government, last year 653,100 people experienced homelessness on a single night in America — a 12 percent increase from 2022. Nearly half of these people sleep outside.
Researchers have found that homelessness is primarily linked to unaffordable housing, compounded by the lack of adequate health care and social safety net support. With half of all renter households now spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, more people today are one emergency away from being vulnerable to homelessness.
Fining, arresting, and jailing people for a lack of housing is never the solution — and compounds existing housing inequities. Neither is displacing people without providing permanent alternative housing. Unpayable fines perpetuate the cycle of poverty, and a criminal record makes it even more difficult to secure employment and decent housing.
Moreover, the costs of criminalizing people for living unhoused are higher than housing them, both morally and financially. Instead of kicking them while they’re down, housing support combined with other voluntary services help to lift them back up.
Using a “Housing First” approach, Houston, Texas reduced homelessness by nearly two-thirds over a decade. Chattanooga, Tennessee reduced homelessness by half in 2022-2023 by connecting more people to housing, increasing homelessness prevention efforts, and creating more affordable housing units.
Other helpful measures include expanding housing subsidies, rent control, a renter’s tax credit, and ensuring access to health care services.
The underlying issue is how we treat those who struggle to meet basic needs in the wealthiest nation in the world. Criminalizing people for involuntarily living unhoused and in poverty is inherently cruel.
For the U.S. to truly address this crisis, we must transform our approach and recognize that housing is a fundamental human right, not a commodity. All people deserve to live in a home in peace, security, and dignity.
Farrah Hassen, J.D., is a writer, policy analyst, and adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona.
Pogo says
@And so it goes
R.S. says
It seems all part of the central myth of the US, namely that if we punish people for acting wrong, they will then act right. If they don’t act right, the absolutely insane solution is to punish them some more and more severely. That’s why the land of the free and the brave has more incarcerated people than any other nation in the world. We have 6 percent of the world’s population, but we have 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population. That’s why the land of the free and the brave has more destitute people. The other root, I believe, is the insane Puritan confidence that the deity shows that people are bound for heaven by making them wealthy and that people who are poor are, thus, bound for hell anyway. So if the deity, who is all knowing, knows that they are the damned, why should we help them? Robert Burns’ poem Holie Willie’s Prayer should be required reading for every US “Christian.” Finally, it’s been shown in more progressive settings that it’s far cheaper to house people than to criminalize their condition.
Fritz says
I have seen first hand that you can make shelter space and beds available to those that need them and will use them, some homeless won’t go because the shelters that I know of do not allow alcohol and drugs.
And in another the case a campus was established with beds, clothing, wash facilities, medical, etc. But because it was too far from town out SR 207 and the Yellow Bus doesn’t go that far, they chose to stay homeless closer to town to panhandle.
Have offered food leftover from lunch if I went out with a friend from work, and was turned down asking for money instead. Sign said “hungry and needed help”. Just B.S.
All about ‘choices’ one makes.
JimboXYZ says
The Federal Government is the one with all the money, States don’t do relief legislation. It’s a Biden-Harris thing. We’ve spent billions internationally, the coffers are bare for Americans. 4 wars, Ukraine, Gaza, Border Crisis & inflation. The latter is apparent in the homelessness issue. Even if there were apartments to house the homeless, Rents increased, the cost would be astronomical. As it is, Biden would rather harvest relatively legal immigrants for Biden votes in November 2024 & house them in schools & anywhere else, provide food subsidies, provide the jump start that not a single American homeless individual is receiving. Biden wants more money ($ billions) to send to foreign governments for the border crisis. The same plan that has failed since he took oath of office. Where is all this money going to come from ? More taxation ? Still don’t think 2020 wasn’t the coup by the Democrats. It’s nice that Biden declared Covid over, but the reality is that we are still facing the same inflation from 2021-present. Just look at fuel prices. That’s going to affect everything, groceries, housing & anything else. Honestly, as bad as it has gotten under Biden, nobody can fix this mess, not even Trump. Regardless of whether it’s 46 or 45 becoming 47, the next 4 years is just not enough time for either to right the ship. Biden prosperity is a combination of bailouts & inflation to the masses. We’re all paying dearly for this Biden mess.
The Sour Kraut says
Wealthiest country in the world??? Have you checked the national debt recently?
James says
Seems the private “for profit” jail system needs a new “raison d’etre.”
Just an opinion.
Celia Pugliese says
Flagler County should have a dedicated shelter for the Homeless were they can receive while waiting in temporary housing, job training, placement, addiction and medical treatment besides sheltering and with all the volunteers for the homeless helping them now managing the place. Maybe campsite type at least while better infrastructure afforded. City (us) owns some parcel behind the Chevy dealer off Rte 100… Maybe we are to look into what other cities are doing about it: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/loangeles-homeless-karen-bass-affordable-housing/ By the way we should applaud and support all the Sheltering Tree volunteers al Denise Calderwood and our local churches volunteers for their compassionate work they do for the local needy. We have the manpower just need the location to start with, as I know the community at large will support it.