In April, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a major case that could reshape how cities manage homelessness. The legal issue is whether they can fine or arrest people for sleeping outside if there’s no shelter available. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has deemed this cruel and unusual punishment, and this case is a pivotal challenge to that ruling.
The high court declined to take up a similar case in 2019. But since then, homelessness rates have climbed relentlessly. Street encampments have grown larger and have expanded to new places, igniting intense backlash from residents and businesses. Homelessness and the lack of affordable housing that’s helping to drive it have become key issues for many voters.
The case, Grants Pass v. Johnson, could have dramatic implications for the record number of people living in tents and cars across the United States.
Oh good. With this SCOTUS, I assume they’ll declare it open hunting season on homeless people.
I fucking hate it. I mean read this shit-
The legal issue is whether they can fine or arrest people for sleeping outside if there’s no shelter available.
FINE people who can’t even afford a home when they have NO CHOICE but to sleep outside. And this even reaches SCOTUS? It wasn’t immediately laughed out of court? Not in America.
I live some distance out of town near a highway. I have to drive over a small bridge to get into town. The bridge is still not in town, there’s farm fields next to it. But there’s a sign next to the bridge, in English and Spanish, that says ‘no trespassing.’ To be clear, this isn’t some person putting it on their land, this is an official county government sign. And yes, before the sign went up, people were sleeping under there.
These people have nowhere to go. You can’t even argue that they’re wanted as bodies for the industrial prison system, because they usually aren’t arrested, just chased off. And apparently given fines they can’t afford now.
I honestly have no idea what cities and counties expect these people to do.
I honestly have no idea what cities and counties expect these people to do.
Die.
They expect us to die.
I spent half of my 20s homeless in Canada and was outright told by a cop that he would have preferred to come deal with my dead body. “Why don’t you kill yourself? Make my life a lot easier so I wouldn’t have to come and tell your lazy ass to move and get a fucking job. Get out of here. If I see you back here again then my boots won’t and might walk into you.”
Most cops were spiteful and vindictive but wouldn’t outright say anything like he did. Most of the time I would ask for help. Like where should I go? Always afraid. Always nervous. I didn’t want to be homeless. I was terrified. I wanted to be okay again. But everytime I asked for help they would shrug and say “That’s not my job.” Meanwhile the people whose job it would be? They’re not funded.
They just want us to die.
I can absolutely believe that, but driving people out of wherever they settle isn’t going to achieve that either. It seems like they think as long as they treat homeless people like shit, the problem will solve itself, despite that having been shown to be demonstrably untrue for, oh, I don’t know… centuries?
They just don’t care. As far as they’re concerned the problem cannot be solved. If it’s existed for centuries then it’s because it doesn’t have an answer, right? They’re looking for the cheapest solution at this point because they “know” they’ll have to do it forever anyway so find the most cost effective solution.
There are two.
The first is to get them out of your city. Typically this is just done with a bus ticket. Relatively cheap but a lot get sent back or there ends up being problems with the other towns.
The second is to kill them. There’s no one to pay out the money to most of the time and the cost of a paupers grave is considerably cheaper than housing or prison.
It’s just purely financial. To people making these decisions, our lives are not worth the financial cost of sustaining them. It’s considered a drain on resources. It’s a complete depersonalization which is accepted by most of society because most of society depersonalize homeless people themselves either out of fear of unwarranted and random attack (which is rare as FUCK) or because it’s a reminder that their own lives could go very badly. Then there’s the propaganda people buy into and say that they either put themselves in this position with drugs or are dangerous.
To the vast majority of society we are not even considered human beings. To businesses and the government we aren’t considered human beings. We’re just a statistic.
To the vast majority of society we are not even considered human beings. To businesses and the government we aren’t considered human beings. We’re just a statistic.
I read the news a lot, especially local news. My city has seen unprecedented levels of homelessness in the past few years.
Who does the local media interview the most about this? Homeless people? Non-profits organizations trying to help despite lack of resources? Homeless shelters? Addiction services?
Nope; the local chamber of commerce. The focus is always on “oh no the poor people are affecting our businesses!” and never on the people literally dying on our streets. It’s disgusting.
Who does the local media interview the most about this? Homeless people? Non-profits organizations trying to help despite lack of resources? Homeless shelters? Addiction services? Nope; the local chamber of commerce.
This is the most telling part of what I said in that we aren’t considered people. The News reporting on it affecting everyone other than the people it affects because the news is for people, not for disgusting animals. Unless you can water ski and are a dog.
“Let’s cut some taxes for us to help us keep our businesses running.”
The whole thing just makes me sick. And these people also claim to love Jesus, of course. It’s amazed there are any Christians left after observing century after century of hypocrisy.
Or they want to arrest them to increased the slave population.
That’s what a baseball bat and dumpster are for.
There are a bunch of common sense principles that you’d think would be obvious to anyone but apparently aren’t reflected in any laws. One of those principles is that nobody should ever be penalized for something beyond their control.
They would just find some way to claim that it wasn’t beyond their control because they didn’t pull themselves up by their bootstraps or whatever.
It wouldn’t totally solve homelessness, but it would go a big way towards it if we offered housing, a UBI, and medical, rehab and psychological care free of charge. But this is America.
Their purpose is to serve as a visible (but not too visible) threat to force people to sell their lives in exchange for the money needed to avoid that fate.
Yes, charging them money for the crime of not having enough money should solve the issue! Then we can pay to house them in prison instead of paying to house them in housing where they might have gotten a job.
Oh, they’ll have a job in prison, too. They just won’t get paid to do it.
They get paid for it but it’s like 13¢ an hour.
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Slavery is always the goal.
None of this is an accident. This is literally war against poor people.
More prisoners = more slave labor.
Instead of fines or arrests, how about accommodation?
“House the homeless? I’d much rather my tax money go to buying tanks for the police.” - Average NIMBY
But that would cost rich people money. Can’t have that.
I mean you don’t get rich without exploiting people. You don’t get rich being morally responsible.
This is literally a war. It’s rich vs poor.
Theres plenty of accomadation. The problem is that they refuse to use it.
“Why do people choose to live under bridges wherever they want instead of in one giant communal room where they have a cot they can be raped on when they try to sleep?”
It’s spelled accommodation. For someone that supposedly graduated college you’d think you’d know that.
“THEY” don’t refuse anything. Some people do.
Not that you give a shit. You just regurgitate whatever your asshole uncle tells you to without thinking.
Fuck back off to posting Fox News articles in your conservative circlejerk hut and stay there, shitbag. No real human wants to interact with you cunts.
That’s what I said. They give out fines and arrests because they refuse to let people into the accommodations
I’m no expert, but making it illegal doesn’t seem like a solution to homelessness.
Except of course they aren’t looking for a solution. That’d explain a lot.
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What conservatives fail to acknowledge about this solution is that the taxpayers are now paying to feed and house these people, in jail, at a cost much higher than if you fed and housed them in society in the first place with the added draw back of them have zero opportunity to improve their situation on their own when you have them locked behind bars. Then their sentence ends and they get kicked out on the street right back in the same position they started in.
It’s all so obvious and I don’t get how so many people fail to see this. Jail is upwards of $100/day which comes out to ~$3000 per month. You could rent them an entire house for $3000 a month in most areas.
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This is going to end up with crucifixion being legalized.
They should legalize crucifixion but only for people who don’t return the shopping trolley.
I’m shocked this isn’t legal in the more Jesus-y places already
OH MY FUCKING GOD HOUSE THEM
Serious question, where?
If they’re willing to put them in jail then the state is already willing to pay for their housing and healthcare.
I bet it’s cheaper to build housing than keeping the same person in prison for a non-crime such as living rough.
Oh wait there are some studies already
It’s even cheaper to house them than to have them remain unhoused.
in a house
I am curious how they will rule. On one hand the Catholics are going to be told to not go after the homeless on the other hand Alito and Clarence are going to get a donation from the Chamber of Commerce.
Bell Riots, here we come.
Sorry for the fandom link.
Oh the supreme Court? So flamethrowers?
But powered by oil made from
humanhomeless fatty tissues.So a biofuel, is good for you. Unless you look at your landlord funny, then it’s a bit harmful to you.
It’s the new BEFNG ones, you’re fine. Unless you’re at the other end
It’s not a war against homelessness. It’s a war against the homeless.
Supreme Court about to legalize homeless hunting licenses.
Hunting them down for sport wins 6 votes against 3
The “problem” has gotten worse and is not just in the big cities. It is going on everywhere. A lot of these people just want their freedom to “be”. Most of the cities just want them to leave. If you offer them services, they will have to want them or at least follow the minimum rules at a facility (like be sober) to stay there. Some just aren’t going to do it. Period. I speak as a recovering alcoholic and know this to be true. I don’t think municipalities want them dead, they just want them to be somewhere else. Do they have the right to push them out? Will be an interesting case to follow.
There is no “somewhere else” for them to go to, just a bunch of other places where people don’t want them either. Seems like everywhere in America just wants to shuffle homeless people around without doing much (or often anything) to actually solve the problem.
There’s nothing a city can realistically do except shuffle them around - providing assistance simply motivates more homeless people to arrive from other places until the assistance is exhausted and the city is left worse off, with less money and more homeless people.
What do you suggest?
Not criminalizing homelessness for starters.
The actual solution is to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place, but that would be “socialism” and therefore too unpopular to actually implement. But housing-first solutions seem to work great every time they’re tried.
I hear your point but I am not sure how you would prevent people from becoming homeless. Like, how do you suggest implementing this? Seriously. (Trying to get beyond the easy platitudes and idealism you suggest.) Section 8 housing has been available in the US since 1937. Apparently that hasn’t worked. There is also the HUD Exchange:
UBI and/or a housing guarantee.
At a certain point it’s the same thing. When the government makes it that hard to live, it’s just going you die and solve the problem for them. Disability is the same way.
… so it’s the USA supreme court that comes up with Soylent Green recipe?
Actually kinda makes sense.
How far? Like housing them and treating their physical and mental health issues? Legalizing drugs so that we don’t criminalize addiction? Can you really go to far too help people in need?
