Cities can ban sleeping outside

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, by a vote of six to three, along ideological lines, that cities can ban homeless people from sleeping on the streets.

It is the court's most significant decision on homelessness since at least the 1980s, when many experts say the modern homelessness crisis in the United States began.

The ruling says local governments can enforce laws against people who sleep in public places without violating the U.S. Constitution's limits on cruel and unusual punishment.

The case began in the small town of Grants Pass, Oregon, where three homeless people were taken to court after receiving citations for sleeping and camping outside.

At a Supreme Court hearing in April, the city argued that criminal penalties were necessary to enforce local laws that prohibit homeless people from public spaces for “cleanliness and safety reasons.”

Homeless residents said the penalties violated the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because the city had no public shelters.

Writing on behalf of the conservative majority in an opinion released Friday, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the city's camping regulations do not inflict terror, pain or shame.

He added that the law does not criminalize the mere status of being homeless and that the ban focuses more on the actions taken by individuals rather than their status alone.

Under city law, it doesn't matter whether the defendant is a homeless person, a backpacker on vacation passing through town or a college student who abandons his dorm room to camp out in protest on the lawn of a municipal building, Justice Gorsuch wrote.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, speaking for the three dissenting liberal justices, wrote: “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime. Homelessness is a reality for many Americans. »

Several cities issued statements welcoming the decision. San Francisco said it would help cities “manage our public spaces more effectively and efficiently,” and the city of Grants Pass, at the center of the dispute, said city leaders would meet with their attorneys to discuss next steps.

The number of homeless people in the United States is on the rise, fueled in part by a chronic shortage of affordable housing. About 653,000 people were without housing in 2023, the highest number since tracking began in 2007, according to U.S. government figures.

Last year, about 256,000 people were experiencing homelessness on any given night nationwide, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In response to the decision, the National Alliance to End Homelessness said it “sets a dangerous precedent that will cause undue harm to people experiencing homelessness and give carte blanche to local officials who prefer unnecessary and costly arrests and imprisonment over real solutions.”

Grants Pass's population has doubled to 40,000 in the past 20 years, but its supply of affordable or public housing has not increased.

Rising housing costs have led to a considerable number of people losing their homes.

City officials have responded by passing laws that impose fines on people sleeping or camping in a public place. Over time, these fines added up, reaching thousands of dollars for some.

Unable to pay several fines, three homeless people took the city to court.

Their lawsuit reached the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in 2022 that Grants Pass's restrictions were so strict that they amounted to an effective ban on homelessness within city limits.

The Court had determined four years earlier, in a similar case in Idaho, that the Constitution prohibits a city from criminally prosecuting people who sleep outdoors on public property when those people have no home or other shelter where to go.

Meanwhile, the homeless crisis continues to worsen.

Jennifer Friedenbach of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness said the money and resources should “go to getting people off the streets.”

“What we know is that arresting and fining people who are homeless doesn’t work,” she said. “It doesn’t get anyone off the streets. It wastes municipal resources and exacerbates homelessness.”

The Supreme Court's Grants Pass decision will now allow cities to take tougher measures without fear of legal challenge.

The first problem with incarcerating homeless people is that it's extremely expensive, and when they get out, the person is still homeless and now even less likely to find a job with a criminal record, says Elizabeth Funk, founder of DignityMoves, a nonprofit dedicated to ending homelessness.

“We need to think about how to solve this problem,” she said. “It’s not about fining people for doing something they can’t avoid. It’s about helping them.”

Some of the highest concentrations of homeless people are on the West Coast.

California, with its moderate temperatures, has nearly half of all homeless people living outdoors and has a total of 123,423 homeless people, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Across the country, cities are grappling with how to combat this growing crisis.

The issue has been at the heart of recent election cycles in West Coast cities, including Los Angeles, where officials have invested record amounts in shelters and affordable housing as homelessness continues to rise.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj774nxrpy7o The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos