'Terrifying and dystopian': the dark realities of the supreme court's homelessness decision

[marmar]

(Guardian UK) The US supreme court ruled Friday that cities can fine and jail unhoused people for sleeping outside, arguing that criminalizing camping when there is no shelter available does not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment”.

The 6-3 ruling is the most consequential legal decision on homelessness in decades in the US.

....(snip)....

Sara Rankin, a Seattle University law professor and director of the Homeless Rights Advocacy Project – whose article on criminalization was cited in Sonia Sotomayor’s blistering dissent – spoke to the Guardian on Friday about the ruling, its impact on unhoused residents and the possibility of a dramatic expansion of efforts to criminalize the poorest Americans.

Let’s start with Oregon – what does this mean for unhoused people in Grants Pass?

It means that Grants Pass can enforce its 24/7 citywide ban on public homelessness. The question was whether cities should be able to jail or fine someone who has no other alternative but to live in public space – the unhoused folks who are considered “involuntarily homeless”. The city was already allowed to arrest people who had declined offers of shelter. Now, Grants Pass will likely be fining people who have no shelter options. ............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/29/law-professor-homeless-rights-supreme-court-ruling

[2naSalit]

1. In other words...

Get out of town. That's what they do here, they give you a bus ticket to someplace else.

[SorellaLaBefana]

2. If Homelessness be a Crime--What about *MAKING* people Homeless?

Le Penseur detail from Rodin's Gates of Hell through whose portals we seem to be passing.

How many paychecks stand between you and homelessness?