Supreme Court Homelessness Case Draws Unusual Alliances

As voters’ frustration has grown with sprawling tent encampments in public spaces, Democratic and Republican leaders alike have called for greater authority to ban such camping.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has said that he opposes criminalizing homelessness but that decisions like the one in Grants Pass have impeded the ability of the local authorities to move people into shelters and temporary housing.

The Goldwater Institute and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California ordinarily have little in common. One is a conservative think tank in Arizona, the other a Democrat leading one of the nation’s most liberal states.

But for the past six years, they have been aligned on one highly charged issue: the need for some legal way to clear homeless encampments that have proliferated in cities throughout the West.

On Monday, the Supreme Court will consider an Oregon case that could reshape homelessness policy nationally. On its face, The City of Grants Pass v. Johnson asks how far cities can constitutionally go to restrict sleeping and camping in parks and on sidewalks.

More broadly, however, the case deals with one of the thorniest aspects of the homelessness crisis — the balance between the government’s responsibility to protect public health and the human right to exist without housing.

The conflict has been particularly acute in the West, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, has issued opinions over the past six years that officials blame for the sprawling tent encampments in public spaces that have spread since the pandemic. As voters’ frustration has grown, Democratic and Republican leaders alike have called for greater authority to ban such camping, only to have the courts reject them.

Advocates for homeless people, the American Psychiatric Association and several left-leaning states, including New York, Illinois and Minnesota, argue that criminalizing homelessness only worsens the problem. More effective, they say, is focusing on housing, treatment, education and jobs for people who are homeless.

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