The Supreme Court upheld policies like Denver’s and Aurora’s Friday that outlaw urban camping and whisk homeless encampments off city streets and into shelters – or sometimes just down the road.
“Anti-camping and lodging ordinances result in citations, arrests, and forced displacement for the inescapably human act of taking up space,” said Terese Howard of Housekeys Action Network Denver in a news release. “These ordinances cause essential belongings, including items necessary to basic human survival, to be confiscated and destroyed. And they severely curtail people’s ability to pursue economic and housing security.”
According to a Western Regional Advocacy Project, or WRAP news release, “The Supreme Court issued a decision today in the landmark case Grants Pass v. Johnson. This case centers on whether governments can fine and arrest unhoused people who have no other choice but to sleep outside. As expected, our Dred Scott loving Supreme Court diluted people’s 8th amendment protections against Cruel and Unusual punishment…Lower courts had ruled that Grants Pass practices were in fact found to be unconstitutional as they were arresting and citing unhoused people for camping, who have no other choice but to live on the streets.”