*The Supreme Court is currently reviewing whether homeless people have a constitutional right to camp on public property.
The justices will review an appeals court ruling that found bans on homeless people camping on public property in California and the West violate the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, Los Angeles Times reports.
The Supreme Court will weigh decisions of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled denying shelter to homeless people with nowhere else to go is cruel. City attorneys noted that the rulings in cases from Boise, Idaho, and Grants Pass, Ore. will make it difficult for officials in California and the eight other Western states under the court’s jurisdiction to clear encampments.
Several of the states have large populations of homeless people, but California is “home to half of the nation’s unsheltered population,” attorneys said in their appeal in Grants Pass vs. Johnson.
“California has invested billions to address homelessness, but rulings from the bench have tied the hands of state and local governments to address this issue,” California Governor Gavin Newsome said. “The Supreme Court can now correct course and end the costly delays from lawsuits that have plagued our efforts to clear encampments and deliver services to those in need.”
CNN reports that two homeless people in Grants Pass noted in court papers that “because there are no homeless shelters in Grants Pass … most of the City’s involuntarily homeless residents have nowhere to sleep but outside.”
“These ordinances collectively ‘prohibit individuals from sleeping in any public space in Grants Pass while using any type of item that falls into the category of ‘bedding’ or is used as ‘bedding’’ – language that extends far beyond ‘camping’ to prohibit sleeping with so much as a blanket or ‘a bundled up item of clothing as a pillow,’” they told the justices.
Here’s more from the L.A. Times:
Among those asking the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court are local officials in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and other cities.
The appeals court ruled 2-1 that Grants Pass, which is about 250 miles south of Portland, cannot “enforce its anti-camping ordinances against homeless persons for the mere act of sleeping outside with rudimentary protection from the elements, or for sleeping in their car at night, when there is no other place in the city for them to go.”
The decision only applies in situations in which homeless people “are engaging in conduct necessary to protect themselves from the elements when there is no shelter space available,” the court added.
The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments about the issue in April, with a ruling expected by the end of June.
READ MORE: Report Reveals California Has Highest Number of Homeless People
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