Camping bans, penalties after Supreme Court ruling could worsen homelessness, experts say ...Middle East

A series examining how local governments regulate – and criminalize – homelessness.

A man is sleeping on the ground next to a bus stop wrapped in a blanket when he is spotted by a police officer.

A City of Las Vegas marshal notices the 55-year-old while patrolling near the Fremont Street Experience in Downtown Las Vegas on a recent November morning, according to the police report.

Officer James Blaisure determines the man is unhoused and violating an expanded ban passed by the city council earlier in the month that restricts camping or lodging citywide even if there aren’t available shelter beds.

The officer sees the man’s walker covered in clothes next to him as he sleeps. Blaisure uncovers the blanket and tells him he cannot sleep there.

The man is asked if he has been to the Courtyard Homeless Resource Center, roughly a mile away that can accommodate up to 550 people with a sleeping mat at night.

He tells the officer “he was going to make his way over there eventually,” according to the police report.

It was the second time in a week that officers had warned him for the same offense – camping or lodging without consent, a misdemeanor that could carry a $1,000 fine.

Experts and advocates suspect such encounters are on the rise following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that cities don’t violate the 8th Amendment’s restriction on cruel and unusual punishment when they criminalize those experiencing homelessness for sleeping outside even if there aren’t other adequate accommodations for them to go.

The National Homelessness Law Center tracked cities that have passed anti-homeless camping bans or expanded existing camping bans to make them more punitive since the high court’s decision. It found 99 ordinances were passed in 26 states that restrict unhoused people from sleeping and camping, according to data it provided to States Newsroom in November.

Another 66 ordinances were pending at the time.

But with homelessness rising, driven by the lack of affordable housing, low wages, and limited access to social services among other factors, advocates say the court decision stands to worsen an issue that has become more politicized in recent years.

“Every bill is a little bit different,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, the communications and campaign director for the National Homelessness Law Center. “The main two things they all have in common are that none of them solve homelessness and all of them will make homelessness worse.”

A full report from the law center on recent criminalization trends is expected to be released in early 2025.

Roughly a third of all camping bans the National Homelessness Law Center has tracked since July were passed in California, the state with the largest homeless population.

Illinois had the second highest with 13 ordinances, all that featured language crafted by the Illinois Municipal League.

Eric Tars, the senior policy director at the National Homelessness Law Center, said there is a common refrain across cities adopting ordinances with local officials saying “it’s not our intent to criminalize people experiencing homelessness.”

The camping bans passed in Illinois cities start with a $75 fine, a hefty price for someone experiencing homelessness. The cost can increase each time.

Violating camping bans could result in a $50 fine in Merced, California and a $100 fine in Phoenix, Arizona.

Almost nowhere in America can you do all of the activities that you and I do every day and take for granted. Eating, sleeping, resting, sitting. We're all sitting right now. If we were doing that and we were homeless and doing that outside in a public space, it might be considered a crime.

– Eric Tars, National Homelessness Law Center senior policy director

A West Virginia city expanded a ban in September, prohibiting camping and storing personal property in public spaces, West Virginia Watch reported. Morgantown officials set penalties ranging from fines of $200 to $300 for second and third offense as well as possible jail time.

Kinsburg, California has fines up to $500. Similar to Las Vegas’ fine, ordinances passed in some California cities like Fresno, Indio and Hemet could come with up to $1,000 fines.

Las Vegas City Marshals, which oversee public safety and enforcement on city-owned property, issued citations to three unhoused people sleeping near the Fremont Street Experience in November.

In addition to a potential $1,000 fine, the 55-year-old man also faces up to six months in jail after his 2025 court date. In an email, a Las Vegas official said that it’s up to the judge to decide whether to implement the full amount.

Unhoused people who are arrested under many of these new ordinances could also face jail time ranging from 10 days to a year, the law center reported.

In the Illinois cities that passed similar camping bans, jail time is possible if someone violates the ordinances more than six times in a two-year period.

Not all the bans tracked in the last five months are new, but some have been amended to be more restrictive following the Supreme Court ruling, according to the law center.

Cities including Las Vegas; Oceanside, California; Paso Robles California; Bremerton, Washington; and Auburn, Washington all updated existing camping and sleeping bans in recent months to remove provisions that prevented enforcement if shelter beds weren’t available.

When passing these ordinances, Tars said officials often “try to assuage their conscience and say things like ‘we want to push them into services’ or ‘we’re working on other shelters.’”

“Things like those will take longer, if ever,” he said. “The camping ban they pass goes into effect immediately. Even without those services they’re already moving toward enforcement. That’s the only piece they prioritize. That really tells you what their priorities are.”

Public pressure to do more

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that nationally 654,104 people experienced homelessness on a single night in 2023, a 12% increase from the previous year.

The numbers are largely viewed as an under count as the method of counting individuals on a single January night comes with challenges and an already transient population can easily fall through the cracks.

Marcy Thompson, vice president for programs and policy here at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said data doesn’t give a full picture of homelessness.

“If you just look at that data, it’s easy to assume that things aren’t working and that homelessness response systems aren’t doing their job, or that resources aren’t being spent appropriately,” Thompson said. “What you don’t see in those numbers are things like, how many people are becoming homeless each year for the first time.”

Low wages not keeping up with the cost of rent, the lack of access to health care and mental health resources and systemic racism have all contributed to the homeless crisis, she said.

On the list of policy issues that contribute to homelessness, Thompson said the lack of affordable and available housing nationwide is at the top.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, signed into law by President Joe Biden, provided cities and states with an historic, one-shot infusion of flexible dollars that some used to address housing shortages or stand up homeless resources.

Lauren Lowery, the Housing and Community Development director with the National League of Cities, said those funds resulted in “$6.7 billion for housing-related expenditures, which is like over 10 years of the home investment block grant.”

ARPA dollars were “very significant about helping cities to address those at risk for homelessness and those experiencing homelessness as well,” she said.

But the investments, while significant, were never enough, Thompson said.

“There isn’t sufficient housing,” she said. “As homelessness becomes more visible, there’s often a lot of public pressure to do something.”

The law center said of the 187 cities previously surveyed in recent years they found that each one had “at least one, if not multiple, laws criminalizing homelessness in some form,” Tars said.

In 2023, Georgia lawmakers passed a bill that mandates local governments to enforce ordinances prohibiting unauthorized public camping and sleeping on sidewalks and other public spaces, the Georgia Recorder reported. The measure also requires an audit of how public funding is used for programs to help people experiencing homelessness.

Gov. Bill Lee allowed a Tennessee law banning camping on public property to take effect without his signature in 2022, calling for the need to seek solutions to address homelessness, the Tennessee Lookout reported.

“Almost nowhere in America can you do all of the activities that you and I do every day and take for granted,” he said. “Eating, sleeping, resting, sitting. We’re all sitting right now. If we were doing that and we were homeless and doing that outside in a public space, it might be considered a crime.”

There were attempts to limit punitive measures.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed Republican-sponsored legislation in 2023 that would have made it illegal for unhoused persons to camp in public spaces. And the Missouri Supreme Court struck down that state’s public camping ban on a technicality.

An appellate court in 2022 ruled in favor of unhoused people who sought to overturn city ordinances passed in Grants Pass, Oregon, that restricted and fined people for sleeping and camping in public even though ...

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Camping bans, penalties after Supreme Court ruling could worsen homelessness, experts say )

Also on site :

• UnitedHealth Group CEO steps down; suspends 2025 outlook on higher-than-expected medical costs
• Kurdish leader Ocalan told the PKK to disband, it did: Here’s what to know
• Trump live: US president begins landmark Middle East tour after hailing China relations ‘reset’