Supreme Court Considers Letting Cities , Punish Homeless for Sleeping Outside.
On April 22, the Supreme Court will hear a case out of Grants Pass, Oregon, which has a population of less than 40,000, NPR reports. .
'Grants Pass v. Johnson' seeks to challenge two
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rulings which found fining or jailing the unhoused to be cruel and unusual punishment when they have no other alternative.
'Grants Pass v. Johnson' seeks to challenge two
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rulings which found fining or jailing the unhoused to be cruel and unusual punishment when they have no other alternative.
But Grants Pass argues that public health and safety are dependent on camping restrictions that are commonly found across America. .
The city contends that homeless encampments pose a danger to those living
in them, as well as to families and children.
This is because the encampments
are often filled with people who need
mental health and drug addiction resources.
Advocates for the unhoused say that criminalizing sleeping outside is counterproductive. .
Punishing someone for doing
something they have no control
over, no ability to not do, is not
going to end that status. In fact,
not only does criminalization not
work, it makes matters worse. , Ed Johnson of the Oregon Law Center, via NPR.
A criminal record and debt from fines would make it even more difficult for a homeless person to find housing, says Ed Johnson of the Oregon Law Center.
But many cities don't have
enough permanent housing to offer.
Grants pass could use about 4,000 more housing units, while the national
"deficit is in the millions," NPR reports.
The shortage has caused rents to skyrocket, which is a main driver of homelessness
Credit: Wibbitz Top Stories Duration: 01:31Published
This Day in History:, The Great San Francisco Earthquake.
April 18, 1906.
At 5:13 a.m., an earthquake
struck offshore of San Fransisco,
a city with a population of 400,000 at the time.
The quake was felt from
southern Oregon to Los Angeles,
and ruptured 296 miles of the San Andreas fault.
Destroying San Francisco's water mains,
the quake ignited massive, devastating
fires all over the city that could not be combated.
The fires burned for days,
resulting in the deaths of more than
3,000 people and destroying more than 28,000 buildings.
More than half of the city was
left homeless by the disaster.
Damages were estimated to close to $15 billion in
today's dollars. The recovery and rebuild allowed city
planners to make great improvements to San Francisco
Credit: Wibbitz Top Stories Duration: 00:57Published