The new SCOTUS ruling, rather than recognizing the roots of homelessness and the resources needed to combat it, punishes those who are most vulnerable and ultimately undercuts the health of our communities and economy.
Image at top: A formerly homeless Army veteran outside his home at The Six in Los Angeles, CA, a community supported by LISC and National Equity Fund. Photo by Gus Powell/Courtesy Lee Marks Fine Art.
The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is dismayed by the Supreme Court ruling that allows local governments to arrest unhoused people for sleeping in public places.
“This misguided ruling will cause vulnerable individuals to be turned into criminals and upholds a cruel and ineffective response to a problem plaguing too many of our communities: the lack of services and affordable housing,” said LISC President and CEO Michael T. Pugh. “What is needed are additional resources for services and affordable housing. Criminalizing the status of being unhoused will not solve the homelessness crisis.”
A safe, decent, and affordable home is key to individual health and well-being. Homelessness occurs because housing options are out of reach for the unhoused, and the severe and growing shortage of affordable housing is only exacerbating this situation. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, “on a single night in 2023, roughly 653,100 people – or about 20 of every 10,000 people in the United States – were experiencing homelessness.”
What communities need is a full array of services and affordable housing options to prevent people from experiencing homelessness in the first place, and safe, clean temporary shelter options when homelessness occurs. Without resources to drive these supports, individuals will continue to experience homelessness and housing instability, which threatens family health, safety, employment, and educational outcomes and undercuts local economies. By upholding an overly broad law, the Supreme Court has merely shifted the costs of addressing homelessness to law enforcement, which does nothing to address the problem and will burden law enforcement needlessly.
We call on federal, state, and local governments to help people who are unhoused, not turn them into criminals merely for sleeping outside. Programs that reduce barriers to accessing services and housing, with community practitioners addressing homelessness under a coordinated approach, have been proven to work. Now is the time for policymakers at all levels to invest more deeply in these initiatives.