(NewsNation) — The Supreme Court wrestled with major questions about the growing issue of homelessness Monday as it considered whether cities can punish people for sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking.
Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign director for the National Homelessness Law Center, joined “NewsNation Now” to discuss the realities of homelessness, saying fining people for sleeping outside is “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“Nothing is more cruel than throwing someone in jail for wrapping themselves up in a blanket in the subzero winter. And today, we told the Supreme Court that everybody, regardless of housing status, is protected against cruel and unusual punishment,” Rabinowitz said.
The case started in the rural Oregon town of Grants Pass, which began fining people $295 for sleeping outside as the cost of housing escalated and tents sprung up in the city’s public parks. The San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law under its decision that banning camping in places without enough shelter beds amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
“Many studies show that when you find housing and services that meet people’s needs, people love it, people stay stably housed, and they don’t live outside anymore. Unfortunately, the city of Grants Pass is not interested in solving homelessness,” Rabinowitz said. “Sadly, Grants Pass continues to reject best practices and instead flew their lawyers nearly 3,000 miles to D.C. to argue in front of the Supreme Court about why they should be able to throw people in jail for sleeping outside when they have no safe place to go.”
The justices appeared to be leaning toward a narrow ruling in the case after hearing arguments that showed the stark terms of the debate over homelessness in Western states like California, which is home to a third of the country’s homeless population.
The question is an urgent one in the West, where a cross-section of Democratic and Republican officials contend that the 9th Circuit’s rulings on camping bans make it difficult for them to manage encampments.
Advocacy groups, on the other hand, argued that allowing cities to punish people who need a place to sleep will criminalize homelessness and ultimately make the crisis worse as the cost of housing increases.
“We need our elected officials on every level of government, from cities and states all the way up to the White House, to not only reject cruel and unusual solutions to homelessness like jails and fines” but also to “focus on proven solutions like housing and supportive services,” Rabinowitz said.
“We know that housing solves homelessness. There simply is not enough housing that is affordable to most Americans,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
