Updates on the criminalization of homelessness

The Supreme Court heard arguments in Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, which will have extraordinary implications for the 653,000 people who are homeless right now in the U.S. The court will decide whether  state and local governments can make it illegal to be homeless, aka, arrest people for sleeping outside, regardless of any other offense, even if there are no available shelter beds. The court seems inclined to say that they can. This is made possible by a public discourse that falsely proclaims that “most of those who are homeless are unemployable casualties of mental illness… and drug abuse” (recent oped from prominent conservative libertarian George Will). This makes their plight a personal failing and not something that could be solved with, say, building more temporary and permanent housing. 

There are legal questions here about whether this is punishing a status (not allowed) or an action (allowed), but the larger issue here is whether the American public is going to allow the government to arrest people for existing in a way that makes property-holders uncomfortable, a road that will ultimately be a race to the bottom as more and more people lose housing due to our massive underbuilding problem. Meanwhile, the Guardian investigated and found that private companies have raked in at least $100 million in fees for clearing homelessness camps.  I highly recommend you read that article!

The effort to dehumanize people who are homeless and make it a public priority to eliminate them from public view is dangerous for multiple reasons: it is factually incorrect; it removes public pressure for the real solution, which is building more housing (as Austin is doing, which is sending rents plummeting) and, for those who are in serious distress and not good candidates for independent housing, wrap around mental health support; and it increasingly socializes and makes acceptable the idea that anyone considered ‘other’ is entirely expendable.

This last outcome is the most dangerous. The more we ask Americans to get used to the idea of seeing people arrested for not having a home, or dying in the street (per another supreme court case last week which will allow emergency rooms to turn away dying people), or serving a prison sentence that’s considered de facto inhumane by international standards, the more our social compact breaks down. That culture degradation will not be easy to reverse.  

Source: Mother Jones