PORTLAND, Ore. — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that cities in West Coast areas with a shortage of emergency shelters can ban homeless people from sleeping outdoors.
This case is the most significant to be heard before the Supreme Court on this issue in decades, and comes at a time when more and more people in the United States are becoming homeless.
The case came from the rural Oregon town of Grants Pass, which was appealing a ruling that struck down local ordinances that fined people $295 for sleeping outdoors after tents crowded public parks. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers nine western states, has held since 2018 that such bans in areas where there are not enough shelters violate the Eighth Amendment because they are “cruel and unusual.”
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Can homeless people be punished for sleeping outdoors? Grants Pass asks U.S. Supreme Court
Grants Pass became the center of this national conflict when the bitter dispute over its public parks escalated all the way to the Supreme Court.
According to Grants Pass city ordinance, it is illegal to sleep in public parks and public spaces or to use sleeping materials to establish temporary living quarters.
At the heart of the debate were the city’s parks, many of which line the scenic Rogue River. Valued for their open space, picnic tables, playgrounds and sports fields, they are the setting for everything from annual boat races and vintage car shows to Easter egg hunts and summer concerts.
There were also camps there that were characterized by illegal drug use and crime. In 2023, for example, there was a shooting in a park that left one person dead. Tents stood on river banks, next to tennis courts and climbing frames, and tarps protected belongings from the rain. When the sun came out, clothes and blankets were hung over the branches to dry. Used needles were everywhere on the ground.
There is only one emergency shelter for adults in Grants Pass, the Gospel Rescue Mission. It has 138 beds, but rules such as attendance at daily Christian services, no alcohol, no drugs, no smoking, and no pets mean that many people do not want to stay there.
In response to the growing number of homeless campers in public spaces, the city began issuing jail sentences and tickets for people caught sleeping in parks. Fines could be as high as $295—even if no shelter space was deemed “available.”
This gap between public park usage, shelter availability, and differing ideologies and views on homelessness led the Oregon Law Center to sue Grants Pass in 2018, arguing that the policy violates the Eighth Amendment (which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and excessive fines) against the homeless population.
READ MORE: Supreme Court examines whether punishing homeless people who sleep outside is cruel punishment
The court’s verdict was announced on Friday.
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court overturned an appeals court’s ruling that bans on sleeping outdoors amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
“The court cannot say that the punishments Grants Pass imposes here are cruel and unusual. The city imposes only limited fines for first-time offenders, an order temporarily prohibiting a person from camping in a public park for repeat offenders, and a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail for those who subsequently violate an order (…) Such punishments are not considered cruel because they are not intended to ’cause terror, pain, or shame,'” the court explained.
A group of politicians from both parties had argued that the ruling would make it harder for them to manage homeless encampments that spill onto sidewalks and other public spaces in nine Western states, including California, where a third of the country’s homeless people live.
Homeless activists, however, said that punishing people who need a place to sleep would criminalize homelessness and ultimately worsen the crisis. While cities were allowed to regulate tent encampments, they could not ban people from sleeping outdoors.
The ruling came after homelessness in the United States rose a dramatic 12% last year to the highest level ever recorded, as skyrocketing rents and a decline in assistance during the coronavirus pandemic made housing unaffordable for more and more people.
More than 650,000 people are estimated to be homeless, the highest number since the country began collecting annual point-in-time data in 2007. Nearly half of them sleep outside. Older adults, LGBTQ+ people and people of color are disproportionately affected, activists say. In Oregon, a lack of mental health and addiction resources has also contributed to the crisis.
