Supreme Court Upholds Local Laws That Criminalize Homelessness – OpEd
By The Center for Constitutional Rights
In response to the Supreme Court ruling upholding laws that criminalize homelessness, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement:
“This ruling will have a devastating effect on the rights and wellbeing of the hundreds of thousands of people denied housing in the United States. Rather than provide safe shelter to those who need it, hundreds of local governments have criminalized homelessness via laws similar to the Oregon ordinances upheld by the Supreme Court, which, to be clear, put humans in jail because they cannot afford shelter. In violation of the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, these laws target status crimes, punishing people for who they are.
As detailed in an amicus brief the Center for Constitutional Rights submitted on behalf of 46 groups, the ruling will inflict disproportionate harm on LGBTQIA+ people, because they are unhoused at extremely high rates due to discrimination, bias, and family rejection. For example, transgender people are eight times more likely than their straight, cisgender counterparts to have been recently unhoused. Homelessness is especially prevalent among LGBTQIA+ youth: although less than 10 percent of the U.S population, they make up 40 percent of unhoused youth and 65 percent of youth enduring chronic homelessness, and LGBTQIA+ youth of color are even more likely to be unhoused.
Amid a national affordable housing crisis, the ruling affirms the prevailing punitive approach to homelessness, which treats unhoused people as threatening intruders to be controlled and exiled, rather than fellow citizens and residents who simply need shelter. It also empowers the State to continue to shrink “the commons” both by restricting use of public land and selling it to private entities. Local governments will, for example, use this ruling to suppress Palestinian solidarity activists and other political dissidents who use public land to express their views.
The Supreme Court, a historically reactionary institution, is growing ever more hostile to the needs of low-income Americans and other marginalized groups. We will continue to champion the rights of unhoused people in court, but as always, the best hope for our collective liberation and safety is grassroots politics rooted in solidarity. For information on how to support #HousingNotHandcuffs, visit the campaign’s website.”
