Supreme Court deciding whether they consider it cruel and unusual punishment to jail or fine people for being homeless

[journo]

Because Grants Pass, Oregon is tired of their homeless and want them to go away. In Grants Pass, 600 people out of their population of 38k are homeless, or around 1.5% of their population, an exponentially larger percentage than the rest of the country.



The Supreme Court is likely to determine they don't consider it cruel or unusual to allow for the criminalization of the homeless in the USA.
https://news.yahoo.com/news/supreme-cou ... 10402.html

Grants Pass wants to pawn the homeless off to more generous areas, having failed to integrate those least fortunate into their communty for multiple decades.

So what is up with Grants Pass?

The Grants Pass City Council, past and present, seems the root of a lot of these inhumane measures of the homeless in Grants Pass
https://www.grantspassoregon.gov/Directory.aspx?DID=14

It is currently comprised of the following people:
- Rob Pell
- Brian DeLaGrange
- Vanessa Ogier
- Rick Riker
- Valerie Lovelace
- Dwayne Yunker
- Dwight Faszer, II
- Joel King

The councl recently voted 5 - 3 to "address ongoing incompatible uses in city parks and public property," referring to the passing out of food, clothes and aid to those in parks.
https://www.kdrv.com/news/housing-crisi ... 3ec93.html

Since 2013, the council, compromised of different members over the years has

Engaged in a deliberate campaign to pass andheavily enforce specific ordinances targeting the life-sustaining conduct of people experiencing homelessness, with the City Council President [Lily Morgan, in 2013] openly stating, “the point is to make it uncomfortable enough for them in our city so they will want to move on down the road."

https://homelesslaw.org/wp-content/uplo ... 2022-1.pdf

From 2013 to 2018, the city issued 500 citations for sleeping or camping in public. A 2018 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled this to be cruel and unusual punishment and therefore violated the 8th amendment
https://apnews.com/article/grants-pass- ... 66c06701b8.

[journo]

And who is this "Lily Morgan" who said, “the point is to make it uncomfortable enough for them in our city so they will want to move"

She is a Republican and former state representative who recently accepted a job as Gold Hill, Oregon city manager.
https://www.rv-times.com/localstate/id- ... 1dc9a.html

[journo]

The aggression against the homeless appears to be at least somewhat bipartisan, with Democratic Governor Newsom praising efforts in California to criminalize homelessness in public



https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housin ... on-streets

California, a very populous and relatvely homeless-filled state, currently has 28% of the nations homeless, with half a percent of the entire state being homeless. A third the homeless percentage of places like Grants Pass, but still a lot. And while Newsom has approved meager efforts to house people, the status of one of the more ambitious ones is ambiguous.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realest ... 0l#image=1

It would still be a paltry measure if finished

[badmachine]

America didnt have this amount of homelessness when Section 8 was a well funded and functional welfare program, like food stamps or Medicaid.
then Slick Willy pushed "welfare reform", and the bureaucrats gutted Section 8 to the point where its too hard to get housing that accepts Sec 8, the waitlists are years long, and landlords dont want to deal with the red tape.

[journo]

America didnt have this amount of homelessness when Section 8 was a well funded and functional welfare program, like food stamps or Medicaid.
then Slick Willy pushed "welfare reform", and the bureaucrats gutted Section 8 to the point where its too hard to get housing that accepts Sec 8, the waitlists are years long, and landlords dont want to deal with the red tape.

There is a bill to re-expand public housing to everyone who needs it. It gets to congress every 3 years and doesn't make it to the floor, consponsored by about a 25%-30% of House Democrats and 0 House Republicans.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr4232

I agree though that public housing expansion would end homelessness and underhousing almost entirely. It also seems like the obvious solution to homelessness for those who want homelessness gone.

[journo]

The DOJ has stepped into try to push back against the clear goals Grants Pass and other related town/cities, and state the Supreme Court can't truly grant police the power to fine or arrest homeless people merely for sleeping on public property. At least not through this case alone. DOJ states that a law enforcement response to homelessness would break other constitutional provisions.

They say so partly because the DOJ Is cracking down on Phoenix police for illegal and unconstitutional measures against homeless in Phoenix.

The DOJ’s report lays bare the inner workings of the aggressive law enforcement campaigns in response to a nationwide epidemic of homelessness, including deploying police to “clear out” homeless encampments. It’s a stark contrast to the picture that the conservative justices apparently imagine in Grants Pass, Oregon’s public camping ban. The report makes clear that there are multiple constitutional provisions that can apply to prohibit the kinds of broad, forceful sweeps of homeless encampments seen in some cities.

“Regardless of any future Supreme Court ruling, the law” is clear that “officers lack reasonable suspicion to stop people for merely sleeping on public property when they have nowhere else to sleep,” the Justice Department said in its report.

https://prospect.org/justice/2024-06-20 ... r-phoenix/

[journo]

Supreme Court ruled they think it is not cruel and unusual punishment to criminalize homeless sleeping on public property

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/28/nx-s1-49 ... ncampments

[ericbarbour]

And who is this "Lily Morgan" who said, “the point is to make it uncomfortable enough for them in our city so they will want to move"
She is a Republican and former state representative who recently accepted a job as Gold Hill, Oregon city manager.

Which is funny. I've been to Gold Hill. A friend lives in an old schoolhouse nearby.

Gold Hill is a DUMB little town. Very boring, hick-ish and inbred, despite being right next to the I-5 freeway. She deserves them and they deserve her.

As for Grants Pass, I will never understand why it became a gathering place for loose bits of humanity. It has a certain reputation for racism and NIMBYisms. It's not "the climate" either.

[journo]

As for Grants Pass, I will never understand why it became a gathering place for loose bits of humanity.

I saw this video yesterday which goes into some of the familial conflicts related to homelessness in Grants Pass.

It's not representative of all the homeless there and the YouTuber here is sensationalist and often exploitative

But he found some interesting characters, such as a Dad protesting his homeless son. He is arguably the main "clean up our parks" homeless protestor there.

[journo]

Elk Grove California residents have been up in arms for 2 years about plans to create affordable housing for the homeless in Elk Grove citing safety and (privacy?) concerns. So they moved the development to government owned land. Residents still complaining and campaigning against having to live anywhere near them.