This post was originally published on Defender Network
By Gregory Stevenson
In many ways, the recent Supreme Court ruling that the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit cities from criminalizing sleeping outdoors is an attack on Black people.
Why?
Because the national crisis of homelessness is unfortunately and absolutely a “Black thang” that far too many of us understand far too well.
National Crisis, Local Pain
Homelessness is a massive problem in the U.S. And though the number of unhoused individuals and families held steady during the COVID-19 pandemic (in large part because of eviction moratoriums and temporary expanded public benefits), since 2022, homelessness numbers have again skyrocketed.
And last year, Black people made up 55% of people living in the Greater Houston area experiencing homelessness even though they comprised only 20% of the area’s population.
According to various sources, the number of homeless persons in Houston at any given moment in 2023 was roughly 3,300. This number may feel low to persons who frequently drive along Bayou City streets, feeder roads, and other areas where large numbers of the unhoused congregate.
And for good reason.
That number is dwarfed when considering that in 2021, more than 21,000 people in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties accessed some type of homeless service. And when those who sought homelessness prevention and other services (i.e. clothing or food assistance) are added, the number jumps to more than 52,000 people.
And homelessness isn’t just a condition that happens to “other” people. With over 16% of Harris County residents living in poverty (a 2021 number that doesn’t include those teetering on the brink of poverty), homelessness for many could be just one missed check, one serious medical emergency, or one lost job away.
Case in point, last year 42% of unsheltered people were homeless for the first time — up from 40% in 2022.
Origins of Criminalization of Homelessness
The case, City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, kicked off the recent SCOTUS decision to criminalize homelessness. Grant Pass, a small city in Oregon with only one homeless shelter, began enforcing a local anti-camping law against people sleeping in public using a blanket or any other rudimentary protection against the elements – even if they had nowhere else to go.
SCOTUS confronted the question, “Is it unconstitutional to punish homeless people for doing in public things that are necessary to survive, such as sleeping, when there is no option to do these acts in private” and came out on the side of heartlessness in the view of many.
The Scotus 6-3 decision written by Justice Neil Gorsuch rejected the claim that criminalizing sleeping in public by those with nowhere to go violates the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
As many who disagree with the SCOTUS ruling point out, homelessness in the U.S. is a function of poverty, not criminality. Justice Sonia Sotomayor went in even deeper with her written dissent to the court’s ruling. Just eight words from her dissent say it all: “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime.” Sotomayor was joined in her dissent by justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“The homeless plaintiffs [in the Grant Pass case] did not challenge reasonable regulation of the time and place of outdoor sleeping, the city’s ability to limit the size or location of homeless groups or encampments, or the legitimacy of punishing those who insist on remaining in public when shelter is available,” said University of Southern California Professor of the Practice of Law Clare Pastore. “But they argued that broad anti-camping laws inflicted overly harsh punishments for ‘wholly innocent, universally unavoidable behavior’ and that punishing people for ‘simply existing outside without access to shelter’ would not reduce this activity.
Crackdowns on the Homeless
Pastore pointed out in an article in The Conversation that homelessness, especially its visible manifestations such as tent encampments, has increasingly frustrated city residents, businesses and policymakers across the U.S. and led to an increase in crackdowns against homeless people.
“Reports from the National Homelessness Law Center in 2019and 2021 have tallied hundreds of laws restricting camping, sleeping, sitting, lying down, panhandling and loitering in public,” shared Pastore who also pointed out that under presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the federal government asserted that criminal sanctions are rarely useful. Instead, it has emphasized alternatives, such as supportive services, specialty courts and coordinated systems of care, along with increased housing supply.
“Some cities have had striking success with these measures. But not all communities are on board,” added Pastore.
Pushing People Out
“I expect that this ruling will prompt some jurisdictions to continue or increase crackdowns on the homeless, despite the complete lack of evidence that such measures reduce homelessness.”
