Ohio homeless advocates don’t expect crackdowns after U.S. Supreme Court decision

WASHINGTON, D. C. – A U.S. Supreme Court decision Friday upholding local laws that make it illegal for homeless people to camp and sleep on public property is unlikely to trigger a crackdown on homeless encampments in Ohio, state advocates for the homeless say.

Ohio advocates for the homeless were nonetheless highly critical of the decision, with Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio Executive Director Amy Riegel saying the ruling in the City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson case gives “cities permission to arrest and punish people for sleeping outside even when they have no other options.”

“That’s not just cruel and unusual punishment – it’s a senseless, costly way to make homelessness even worse,” said Riegel, whose organization focuses on ending homelessness and promoting affordable housing.

The 6-3 decision authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch overturned a lower court precedent that declared it “cruel and unusual” punishment for cities and states to penalize homeless people who sleep outdoors if no shelter beds are available. It upheld laws in Grants Pass, Oregon, that penalize sleeping and camping in public places, including sidewalks, streets and city parks.

Gorsuch’s decision noted that Grants Pass’s public camping ordinances apply whether defendants are homeless, backpackers on vacation, or students who camp out in protest on the lawn of a municipal building. He argued it doesn’t criminalize the status of homelessness.

“A handful of federal judges cannot begin to ‘match’ the collective wisdom the American people possess in deciding ‘how best to handle’ a pressing social question like homelessness,” Gorsuch wrote in a decision backed by all six of the court’s conservative justices. “The Constitution’s Eighth Amendment serves many important functions, but it does not authorize federal judges to wrest those rights and responsibilities from the American people and in their place dictate this Nation’s homelessness policy.”

The court’s liberal minority disagreed, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing a dissent that noted sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime.

“For some people, sleeping outside is their only option,” wrote Sotomayor. “The City of Grants Pass jails and fines those people for sleeping anywhere in public at any time, including in their cars, if they use as little as a blanket to keep warm or a rolled-up shirt as a pillow. For people with no access to shelter, that punishes them for being homeless. That is unconscionable and unconstitutional. Punishing people for their status is ‘cruel and unusual’ under the Eighth Amendment.”

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost was among 24 state attorneys general who filed a brief that urged the court to uphold the law, arguing the precedent Gorsuch’s opinion overturned infringed on local authority over homeless policy and criminal law. Their brief said it turned “courts into homelessness czars, entitled to dictate how much shelter State and local governments must provide.

“It is States and localities that have the local knowledge needed to address the problem, and it is States and localities that ultimately bear the costs of homelessness and of homeless policy,” their legal brief continued. “It should be States and localities that make the decisions.”

Some Ohio communities have laws on the books to deter sleeping in public. The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland says Cleveland is among them. It says being found in a public area such as the Mall and Public Square after closing time can result in a trespassing ticket. Sleeping in a park or even relaxing on a park bench for too long can also result in a ticket and court appearance.

Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless Executive Director Chris Knestrick says that law hasn’t been enforced against the homeless. He said his Cleveland-based non-profit group, which focuses on advocacy, organizing and direct street outreach to the homeless, has a longstanding agreement with the city that its officials won’t harass or incarcerate people for innocent behavior on public property.

“I think they understand that homelessness isn’t a crime,” said Knestrick. “We have not seen camp clearing or anything like that in our community as an actual practice or policy from either the county or the city. I am hopeful that will remain that way.”

He said homelessness is on the rise in Cleveland and across the country because of rising rents and the end of housing subsidies and eviction moratoriums extended during the coronavirus pandemic.

He said the number of people in Cuyahoga County’s emergency shelter system rose from 4,691 in 2021 to 5,486 in 2022 to 6,330 in 2023. The numbers of unsheltered homeless people is always far smaller than that, he said. His organization currently knows of 305 people in Cuyahoga County who are sleeping outdoors, said Knestrick.

“I think that if we, as a community, really want to solve homelessness, we need to improve services to people, and figure out direct access to housing” Knestrick continued. “That is what will solve this problem. Incarceration and criminalization will make the situation worse. If people venture into the criminal system, their criminal background keeps them from getting housing. It worsens the problem.”

Ohio Mayors Alliance Executive Director Keary McCarthy said the cities his organization represents are trying to address the root causes of homelessness by finding ways to improve housing access and affordability, rather than imposing criminal penalties on homeless people.

Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio spokesman Marcus Roth said his organization isn’t sure how many Ohio communities might have laws like those in Grants Pass on the books, and said they haven’t been enforced since cities came to realize that locking people up isn’t an effective way to address homelessness.

He said providing affordable housing with access to job training, mental health, and addiction services is actually less expensive than arresting, ticketing, and fining unhoused people for circumstances outside their control.

Right now, he says Ohio and the nation is facing an affordable housing crisis because rents are increasing faster than people’s incomes, particular for people with low incomes. He said the numbers of people falling into homelessness is increasing faster than aid organizations can get people out of homelessness with currently available resources.

He said 11,386 Ohioans were experiencing homelessness in January 2023, the most recent date for which statistics are available, and around 20% of them were unsheltered.

Roth said he hopes Friday’s decision won’t encourage officials in Ohio communities to emulate Grants Pass’s approach to the problem of homelessness.

“This decision is an affront to human dignity,” said Roth. “When you have nothing and you are being harassed just because you are trying to fulfill a basic human function like sleeping and you are getting punished and ticketed and arrested for that, it is an affront to human dignity. I know we are better than that in Ohio. There are better, more cost effective solutions.”

Sabrina Eaton writes about the federal government and politics in Washington, D.C., for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.