How the Supreme Court ruling on homelessness will change downtowns

State of Downtowns: Supreme Court’s ruling on homeless encampments is changing how cities handle humanitarian crisis

What you probably already know: The number of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. continues to rise. In its biggest ruling on the issue in decades, the Supreme Court decided earlier this year that cities can enforce outdoor sleeping bans, overturning lower court rulings that said doing so violates the Eighth Amendment. Grants Pass, a small, rural city in southern Oregon, brought the case, arguing that the previous rulings prevented local governments from curbing upticks in homeless encampments. 

Why? More than 600,000 people were homeless nationwide at the time of the Supreme Court’s ruling. As that figure grows, more residents and city leaders see urban encampments as threats to public safety. The governor of California, the state with the largest unhoused population, said the high court’s ruling “removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years and limited their ability to deliver on common-sense measures to protect the safety and well-being of our communities.” But where crime rates are concerned, limited research makes it difficult to pin down an encampment’s direct impact. Moreover, many researchers say that people experiencing homelessness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. Advocates for the houseless community also stress that criminalizing homelessness makes matters worse.

What it means: BIPOC groups in the U.S. are experiencing homelessness at levels disproportionate to their share of the country’s overall population, according to federal data. It’s also important to note that around 38% of houseless individuals are women. While there are many social service agencies working on homelessness, resources geared specifically toward women and people of color are fewer and farther between. YWCA, a nonprofit based in Washington D.C. with chapters across the country, is working to eliminate racial disparities and empower women — efforts that largely hinge on providing housing services. In Washington state’s King and Snohomish counties, the YWCA helps over 7,000 women and families by providing shelters, including Seattle’s only 24/7 homeless violence prevention shelter, transitional housing, and permanent housing. Maria Chavez-Wilcox, CEO of YWCA Seattle/King/Snohomish, said BIPOC women “are the most disproportionately impacted of all sectors with discrimination and racism encountered as a major block to being able to move forward with their lives.”  

What happens now: The Supreme Court’s ruling makes it easier for communities to fine, ticket, or arrest people living unsheltered, even if there isn’t enough shelter space to accommodate displaced individuals. Whether communities actually decide to levy criminal penalties is up to them, but state laws could limit their reach. Grants Pass, for example, is bound by an Oregon law that requires local ordinances regulating where unhoused people can rest in public to be “objectively reasonable.” Unsurprisingly, that undefined stipulation leaves much room for debate. For now, the push for more affordable housing remains a priority among social service groups. “I think we all have a responsibility to provide shelter and housing services for those being displaced, in some cases inhumanly,” said Chavez-Wilcox.

— Story by Contributing Writer Cambrie Juarez