US Supreme Court To Punish People Who Are Homeless In America?

The question that is trending on the internet now is, US Supreme Court to punish people who are homeless in America?

Helen Cruz set up her tent in a municipal park a few years ago and made it her home for one reason: she wanted to be close to the houses she cleans for a livelihood but couldn’t afford for herself.

“People see the irony of it,” added Cruz, 49. “I never looked at it like that.” Cruz had no idea that living in a park in Grants Pass, Oregon, would put her in the heart of a national dispute over whether communities can respond to an increase in homelessness by punishing homeless people, which will be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday.

In the first significant challenge involving unhoused Americans to reach the high court in decades, the justices will hear arguments Monday on whether punishing those who live on the streets is “cruel and unusual” and violates the Eighth Amendment.

Public and state officials are keeping a careful eye on the situation, as they are unsure how to respond to an increase in homelessness and encampments that have appeared beneath bridges and in public parks across the nation. It is also being followed by those who live in the encampments and are concerned about efforts to criminalize the population rather than providing shelter and cheap housing.

According to a December study from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of homeless people increased by 12% between 2022 and 2023.

According to the report, more than 650,000 people in the United States are homeless on any given night, with nearly 40% of them lacking sufficient housing.

Grants Pass, a city of 38,000 people in southern Oregon, responded by stepping up enforcement of anti-camping rules that prohibit anyone from sleeping in public with “bedding,” which can include sleeping bags or bundled-up clothing. The city claims the bans apply to everyone, not just the homeless.

Critics claim that the only people who erect tents on sidewalks are the homeless.

The case has placed some government officials in a precarious position. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, told the Supreme Court last month that people experiencing homelessness should not be criminalized, but he also cautioned the justices against issuing sweeping rulings that could limit the government’s ability to deal with encampments.

“There is no compassion in stepping over people in the streets, and there is no dignity in allowing people to die in dangerous, fire-prone encampments,” Newsom told the court in a brief that did not support either side.

The Biden administration has also tried to walk a fine line. It urges the Supreme Court to prevent Grants Pass from “effectively criminalizing the status of homelessness,” but also suggests that the case be returned to a lower court for a case-by-case determination of whether the individuals ticketed had nowhere else to sleep.

Cruz said she received so many tickets that she is still struggling to pay them off more than a year after leaving the park. She’d get a ticket, she said, and then have to pack her belongings and relocate. Each violation of the ordinances incurs a $295 fine, which rises to more than $500 if not paid.

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