Next month, the US Supreme Court will hear a case that could change how some communities police homeless camps.
As unsheltered homelessness has increased across the country, more cities and states have passed laws that ban things like camping or sleeping in public places.
Service providers told Streetlight that bans in their area increase the likelihood of their clients receiving tickets, arrests or jail time, worsening their chances of finding housing in the future.
Unsheltered people can’t afford fines or bonds, which can set them up for jail time and failed background checks.
“Criminal records make it harder to get a job,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director for the National Homelessness Law Center. “Things like low credit scores caused by unpaid fines make it harder to rent an apartment, so by focusing on criminalizing people, we are sentencing them to even more homelessness.”
City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson asks the court whether laws banning camping on public property violate the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits excessive bail and fines, as well as cruel and unusual punishment.
In 2018, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in another case that prosecuting people sleeping on sidewalks violated the Eighth Amendment if the person charged had no alternative for shelter.
After that ruling, three people experiencing homelessness sued Grants Pass over its ban on camping on public property and sleeping on sidewalks and roadways.
In 2020, a district court ruled the bans violated the Eighth Amendment. Grants Pass appealed, and the Ninth Circuit Court upheld the district court’s decision.
In its filing asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, Grants Pass describes encampments as sources of drug overdoses, murders, sexual assault, disease and fire, which “hamstring” cities.
“Even when coupled with offers of shelter and other services, efforts to enforce common-sense camping regulations have been met with injunctions,” the court filing says. “Restoring to local governments their rightful authority to address this pressing and complex crisis and get people the help they desperately need is a critical step to solving this crisis.”
A court injunction blocks Grants Pass from enforcing its camping ban at most parks during certain hours. Also in the way is an Oregon law that prevents cities from punishing people for sleeping on public property.
Punishment under Oklahoma’s camping ban bills includes more than two weeks of jail time
Homelessness has risen since 2017 and reached a record high last year. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual point-in-time count estimated 653,100 people were experiencing homelessness in January last year. That figure includes a record number of unsheltered people, with an estimated 256,610 people in unsheltered places.
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As the pandemic worsened homelessness, cities and states have increasingly turned to measures that criminalize homelessness.
In 2020, Tennessee made camping on most state property a felony, then in 2022, became the first state to make camping on local public property a felony. Punishment for the crime is up to six years in prison.
Criminal records can disqualify unsheltered people from certain housing assistance and services.
In states like Oklahoma, bills targeting unsheltered people have been pushed by the Cicero Institute, a conservative think tank that works to influence policies regarding homelessness across the country.
The Oklahoma Legislature is considering bills that would make it a misdemeanor to camp on state property. In both bills, the offense would be punishable by a fine of up to $50 or up to 15 days in jail. Police wouldn’t be able to issue citations on someone’s first camping violation or if they accept assistance, such as transportation to a shelter.
Becky Gligo, executive director of Housing Solutions in Tulsa, said service providers sometimes have issues finding clients after camp cleanups.
“Sometimes we’re working with somebody in an encampment and they have a time-sensitive appointment to get their housing secured,” she said. “But they’ve been moved off of that camp and now it might take us weeks to find them again, and they lose that opportunity.”
Texas camping ban underscores need for community court
In 2021, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a measure that banned homeless camps, making it a Class C misdemeanor to camp in public places. The offense can result in a fine of up to $500.
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Jessie Burdon is senior director of case management services for Haven for Hope in San Antonio. She since the law went into effect, her agency has seen about the same number of encampment cleanups as before the law. Burdon said the main impact has been clients receiving tickets with misdemeanor offenses like trespassing, panhandling, and to a lesser degree, camping.
“We know if the person doesn’t have the means to afford a hotel room or they’re experiencing homelessness,” Burdon said, “they don’t have the money to pay for the ticket. Five hundred dollars is a huge fine and would be hard for anybody to pay.”
Burdon said if the San Antonio Police Department receives a call about someone experiencing homelessness, the agency typically calls Haven’s outreach team. An outreach worker can offer services and a shelter placement, and if the unsheltered person refuses, police may ticket them.
Burdon said police usually issue the tickets outside businesses during the day or in parks and tourist areas like the San Antonio River Walk at night.
Unsheltered people who receive tickets can attend the city’s community court, which opened last year. The municipal court diversion program serves unhoused people who have received Class C misdemeanors.
“For those experiencing homelessness, we typically see that those tickets are classified as time served, and the fee that is owed is waived completely,” Burdon said.
A San Diego camping ban places unsheltered people further from services
A California bill would ban camps within 500 feet of schools, open spaces and transit stops, as well as ban sidewalk camping if a homeless shelter is available.
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The bill is modeled after San Diego’s unsafe camping ordinance passed last year, which bans camping on public property. A city spokesperson said no one was available for an interview for this story.
Most homeless services in San Diego are based in the downtown East Village neighborhood. Sofia Cardenas, data and compliance manager for San Diego nonprofit Alpha Project, said the law has created “a mass shuffling effort,” as unsheltered people are regularly pushed from downtown to other areas.
Now Alpha Project’s outreach team spends longer looking for people who have left the area.
“They just have to dig a little more,” Cardenas said. “They have to go a little further.”
Cardenas said the surrounding communities where unsheltered people are being pushed into have fewer services, including shelters.
“It becomes this ping-pong, blame game of ‘You can’t send all people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to the city of San Diego,’ but that’s where the services are,” Cardenas said.
Some advocates, like Gligo, hope interest around unsheltered homelessness could lead to more affordable housing development and pathways to housing.
She said: “We should be looking at long-lasting solutions that are going to cure the source of the issue rather than labeling people as criminals for their mere existence.”
Connect with resources mentioned in this story
- Learn more about the Alpha Project in San Diego, California and how to volunteer
- Learn more about Housing Solutions in Tulsa, Oklahoma and how to get help
- Learn more about Haven for Hope in San Antonio, how to get help and how to volunteer
- Learn more about the San Antonio Municipal Court’s campaign to help residents address outstanding citations and warrants, which is available through March 22
Contact Streetlight editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@streetlightnews.org. Follow her reporting by joining our newsletter.
Streetlight, previously BigIfTrue.org, is a nonprofit news site based in Oklahoma City. Our mission is to report stories that envision a more equitable world and energize our readers to improve their communities. Donate to support our work here.
