Supreme Court hears arguments on homelessness laws
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — A case working its way through the Supreme Court could end up giving cities the power to outlaw homelessness.
The case revolves around the Oregon town of Grants Pass which made homelessness a criminal offense more than 10 years ago.
Cities around the country are watching closely to see what happens with the case, and activists are concerned by what they saw in court yesterday.
If the Supreme Court does rule in favor of the city, it would leave it up to individual towns to decide if they wanted to enact restrictions of their own.
During the trial this week, the court heard arguments from both sides. The city says it has the right to ban what it calls “camping”, and fine people who they find sleeping on the street.
However, members of the un-housed community say that the response was “cruel and unusual punishment.”
The conservative majority on the court seemed to side with the city’s lawyers, who said homelessness is a complicated issue that shouldn’t be decided from the bench.
Local activists tell me a decision in the town’s favor would leave the door open for towns in mid-Michigan to outlaw sleeping outside and make a growing problem in our area even worse.
“It’s not a crime it’s a policy failure,” said Julia Miller, Director of Punks with Lunch Lansing, an advocacy group that helps with homeless issues. “They’re going to put people in jail and most of the time when people are incarcerated for being unhoused it doesn’t benefit them, and they are still stuck in the same spot and usually with a lot more legal fees and fines.”
Although it’s impossible to say exactly which way the court will end up ruling, we expect to hear a decision back from them in June or July.
Until then the activists we talked to said they will continue to try and educate the public and political leaders about the downsides of measures like this.
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