Can homeless people be fined for sleeping outside? A rural Oregon city asks the US Supreme Court
Can homeless people be fined for sleeping outside? A rural Oregon city asks the US Supreme Court
The rural city of Grants Pass in southern Oregon has become the unlikely face of the nation’s homelessness crisis as its case over anti-camping laws goes to the U.S.
The scenes were emblematic of the crisis gripping the small, Oregon mountain town of Grants Pass, where a fierce fight over park space has become a battleground for a much larger, national debate on homelessness that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
The town’s case, set to be heard April 22, has broad implications for how not only Grants Pass, but communities nationwide address homelessness, including whether they can fine or jail people for camping in public. It has made the town of 40,000 the unlikely face of the nation’s homelessness crisis, and further fueled the debate over how to deal with it.
“I certainly wish this wasn’t what my town was known for,” Mayor Sara Bristol told The Associated Press last month. “It’s not the reason why I became mayor. And yet it has dominated every single thing that I’ve done for the last 3 1/2 years.”
Officials across the political spectrum — from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in California, which has nearly 30% of the nation’s homeless population, to a group of 22 conservative-led states — have filed briefs in the case, saying lower court rulings have hamstrung their ability to deal with encampments.
What the fuck? They're homeless. Sleeping outside is their only option. Shelters are often dangerous, very restrictive on who they let in and there aren't anywhere near enough of them in the places they need to be.
Sleeping in public places isn't a fucking crime. It's not like they'd choose the park over an apartment if they had one.
It's getting to the point that you can't sleep anywhere legally unless you're paying someone for the space you're occupying. Most of the cities near me have destroyed the woods that homeless people lived in, forcing them to move and leaving behind a weird ass looking stand of trees.
I used to work with homeless people and as much as being outside sucks, shelters can be worse. We had people in their 70s who went to shelters and slept on the floor, their heads almost touching their neighbors. They had their meds stolen and had to sleep on top of their belongings to keep them safe. A lot of people chose to sleep outside in the summer because they felt safer.
You can be sure that these jailed homeless people will end up being forced into labor - enslaved - because you can't let dirt-cheap labor go to waste, and you can't let a poor person look like they're getting something for nothing - mooching, free-riding - even if it's not their choice. Handouts are legitimately only for the rich and their corporations after all. If someone's fined+jailed and won't work for some capitalist exploiter, what will be done? I would guess some kind of torture will be employed to change their minds, but wouldn't be surprised if they're simply executed, especially if they're non-white.
Sounds like we’re running out of orphans for the orphan-crushing machine.
I didn't think they'd actually start setting up Sanctuary Districts in 2024, but it looks like that's their eventual goal...
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bell_Riots
Too bad we don't have a Gabriel Bell.
Fines will teach those people who have no money to get more money.
We keep eroding the social support network and complain about the homeless problem.
We keep changing the environment and complain about the new weather.
This all ends… so well.
With this lineup, the SC is going to make execution the punishment for not having gainful employment. Only half sarcastic.
Yall call this civilization? What a joke.
have filed briefs in the case, saying lower court rulings have hamstrung their ability to deal with encampments.
Think it's more about this, than actually collecting fines from homeless people that have no money.
I was wondering if it would be legal to just run over rich people. You what I mean? Let's say you are driving to work and Elon musk is walking from the parking lot to the Starbucks. Could you just drive him over? What about a ticket? Can we give rich people a ticket? Sure it's not like driving over them, but it could work!
You know, after Putin will be finally sent to Hauge(or die) Russia can solve its demographic problem(you know, hundreds of thousands people becoming fertilizer) by simply making flying to Russia free.
Or that is just another stupid idea and we should focus on education, healthcare, pensions, welfare and public transport instead. This should be even easier and have bigger results.
Clearly, we need more space tourism.
I can’t speak for Oregon, but here in California the problem is that we have a LOT of beds that are not being used. And cities and states can’t force people into shelter and care if the area doesn’t have enough beds for everyone that is unhoused.
The ask is to be able to shelter some people with the beds that are available. Right now CA is forced to wait until it could theoretically give every unhoused person a shelter bed at once.