SCU Unhoused Initiative

Challenge to Martin v. Boise heads to the Supreme Court

Since the 2018 Ninth Circuit decision in Martin v. Boise, west coast cities have been barred from prohibiting sleeping in public spaces when adequate shelter is not available for their unhoused residents. The Court found that criminalizing camping on public property is cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the 8th Amendment, when there is nowhere for the people in question to legally sleep. Earlier in January, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Gloria Johnson, et. al. and is expected to provide opinion on whether cities can legally ban or limit camping in public spaces by people experiencing homelessness.

According to a recent CalMatters article, The Boise decision has frustrated lawmakers who claim the ruling prevents them from limiting the spread of encampments and from conducting sweeps they say are necessary for health and safety. Advocates for the unhoused, on the other hand, argue that legislators are overreacting and that the Boise case does not prevent them from regulating encampments. Advocates also feel that the Boise decision is clear and municipalities cannot ban sleeping outside when adequate shelter does not exist for people experiencing homelessness.

As reported by CalMatters, since the Boise decision, subsequent court decisions have resulted in “a patchwork of interpretation across [California] on what qualifies as the ‘adequate shelter’ cities must provide before sweeping homeless camps.” The Grants Pass case could provide some clarity on this issue as well as other questions about the limits of Boise. For example, can cities impose time or location restrictions on sleeping outside; whether a City must have adequate shelter available for every unhoused person no matter what or only on days of a sweep; and, whether cities can criminalize sleeping in public spaces for those who refuse to accept the shelter offered to them.

As quoted in CalMatters, Berkeley law professor Jeffrey Selbin predicts that the Supreme Court will not try to “micromanage” the situation. Instead, he predicts the conservative majority Court will overturn the 2018 Boise decision, thereby permitting cities to widely criminalize encampments.

The Unhoused Initiative will be monitoring this case as it progresses at the Supreme Court and will report any updates as they are released.

SCU Unhoused Initiative

The Unhoused Initiative’s David DeCosse publishes opinion piece for the National Catholic Reporter.

David DeCosse

Unhoused Initiative faculty, David DeCosse, published an opinion piece titled “Homelessness crisis shows our country needs a new national story” in the January 2, 2024 edition of the National Catholic Reporter. The article reflects upon the prayer of St. Vincent DePaul – “It is only for your love that the poor will forgive you the bread that you give them” – and its significance in our collective response to the homelessness crisis.

Examining data and stories from the recent California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness, the piece introduces readers to the realities of California’s homelessness crisis, and follows the prompt of Matthew Desmond’s recent article by challenging us to ask “Who benefits?” from the status quo of housing and homelessness in California. Rather than asking questions of why people experiencing homelessness don’t do something to change their station, we should ask ourselves who benefits from zoning laws or tax breaks that benefit single family homes and limit our supply of available affordable housing.

DeCosse suggests that we rewrite the stories that we tell ourselves to explain the homelessness crisis. Instead of stories of triumph despite adversity and looking for others to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, “we need a new story,” says DeCosse, “in which we are bound in love and justice to the tens of thousands of persons living and dying on our streets.”
Read the full article here.