National Homelessness Law Center: On June 28th, 2024, the Supreme Court issued its decision in the most impactful case on homelessness in decades. In Johnson v. Grants Pass, the court ruled that cities and states could arrest, fine, and jail homeless people sleeping outside, even when they have nowhere else to go. This catastrophic decision lit a match under an already burning fire. In the two years since, we’ve seen a rapid expansion of harmful anti-homeless laws and a retreat away from real solutions to homelessness, like housing and support, at the local, state, and national level. 

Since the court’s ruling came down, over 350 cities and 14 states have passed laws and measures making it a crime to be homeless, including a new Louisiana law that opens the door for cities to push homeless people into treatment and unpaid labor against their will. In a short time, these new laws have already exposed homeless people to increased police harassment, arrests and incarceration, and death while sleeping outside. These new laws have exposed homeless people to increased police harassment, arrests and incarceration, and death while sleeping outside. In Grants Pass, Oregon, homeless people are forced into fenced-off camps under threat of arrest, then excluded for arbitrary violations. In Louisville, Kentucky, a homeless woman was cited and harassed by police for sleeping outside while she was in active labor. In Miami Beach, Florida, nearly half of all arrests made were for sleeping outside. And in Atlanta, Georgia, Cornelius Taylor died after getting crushed by a bulldozer in an encampment eviction. These devastating impacts are the predictable outcome of policies that prioritize punishment over human life. None of this has gotten us any closer to solving homelessness; it has only made homelessness worse.

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