Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley’s law school, also told me he thinks there’s a “huge difference” between reversing a Ninth Circuit decision and courts requiring that cities must clear tent encampments or arrest homeless people.
What a big new Supreme Court decision could mean for homeless Americans
The Grants Pass v. Johnson decision does not spell the end to fights over tent encampments in America.
Still, advocates are intent on trying different strategies, including some legislative ones. The Cicero Institute, an Austin-based conservative think tank, has been pushing bills across the country to ban outdoor homeless camping, and to make cities liable if they fail to enforce those bans.
A Cicero-backed bill in Missouri that was signed into law in 2022 allows the state’s attorney general to sue local governments that don’t enforce their encampment bans. Earlier this year in Florida Republicans passed a new anti-camping law that allows not just the state attorney general but also local residents and businesses to sue local governments if they fail to enforce their bans. It takes effect this fall.
Another strategy advocates hope to ultimately take nationwide is at the ballot box. This fall, in Arizona, voters will vote on a first-of-its-kind ballot measure that could allow property owners to sue for tax refunds if they can prove financial damages from homeless tent encampments. The right-leaning Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based think tank, drafted the measure and hopes other cities will follow suit.
“Today’s decision is the first step toward a sensible approach to the many problems of homelessness,” said Goldwater Institute vice president for legal affairs Timothy Sandefur on Friday in a statement. “By overturning that decision, the Supreme Court today enables local communities to find actual solutions for the people who are suffering—and who deserve better than to be forced by the Ninth Circuit's fiat to live indefinitely in public parks and on sidewalks.”
Homelessness advocates hope to galvanize the public around housing solutions
Homelessness advocates, taking a page from abortion rights groups after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, have been in discussions with lawmakers to move forward both state and federal legislation that would codify the Martin v. Boise decision.
In other words, they hope to push legislation to counteract what the Supreme Court just ruled and ensure that homeless people can’t be punished for sleeping outside on public property if there are no adequate alternatives available.
They also criticized the decision: “This decision sets a dangerous precedent that will cause undue harm to people experiencing homelessness and give free rein to local officials who prefer pointless and expensive arrests and imprisonment, rather than real solutions,” said Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “This ruling allows leaders to shift the burden to law enforcement. This tactic has consistently failed to reduce homelessness in the past, and it will assuredly fail to reduce homelessness in the future.”
Ultimately, liberal homelessness activists hope to use the Grants Pass attention to focus the national conversation on policy solutions they say will actually solve homelessness, including universal rental assistance, repairs to public housing, and funds for eviction prevention. Advocates plan to call for $365 billion in the next year to fund these initiatives.
Following the ruling advocates sent out an email blast inviting people to email their elected officials for more funding for housing and to join the “Housing Not Handcuffs” advocacy campaign.
“We knew from Day 1 that the Supreme Court case wouldn’t end homelessness,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, the communications director for the National Homelessness Law Center. “Now, we must use this moment in time to ensure that Congress and the White House do their job by funding the housing needed to ensure that nobody experiences homelessness in the richest country in the world.”