Waiting for the Grants Pass v. Johnson Decision, with oral arguments scheduled soon
A recap of our recent articles and minidocs plus bonus content.
In the past week, different County commissioners went to social media to explain their to some unexpected votes related to the locally unhoused, specifically those avoiding the Cares Campus, which many residents who have stayed there or visited view as crammed, stressful and unwelcoming (and those are the polite terms).
Their follow up comments came after the two elected Democrats and one appointed so-called establishment Republican voted for a new ordinance banning camping, sleeping in vehicles, and parking RVs on Washoe County property and near the Truckee River, with violations which can result in a misdemeanor.
Two less establishment Republicans voted against the change, to the surprise of many as well.
Meanwhile, there’s a looming Supreme Court decision which could make it moot whenever the Cares Campus is full.
The City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Gloria Johnson case with oral arguments before our highest judicial body scheduled for April 22nd should decide whether a local government can or cannot make it a crime to live unsheltered when no adequate shelter is available.
The question is whether penalties against the unhoused and those too poor to afford to live in an apartment, house or motel, constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
A previous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined states are not allowed to criminalize the unhoused if no inside space is available.
A three-judge panel in 2018 decided in Martin v. City of Boise that “the Eighth Amendment prohibits the imposition of criminal penalties for sitting, sleeping, or lying outside on public property for homeless individuals who cannot obtain shelter.”
The County will say there is an emergency area with extra beds but still this new Supreme Court decision if it goes against the Grants Pass Municipal Code, which includes anti-sleeping and anti camping ordinances, could open it up to lawsuits and have its own recent ordinance, as well as those passed by Reno and Sparks, overturned.
What if someone can’t reach the Cares Campus or the number of people out on the streets exceeds the number of remaining available beds? And how are those numbers determined?
Gloria Johnson who was unhoused says Grants Pass police tried to run her out of the Oregon town because she had no place to sleep. At the time, before the pandemic, cops were waking up the unhoused in the middle of the night, telling them they couldn’t sleep outside and ticketing them $295.
County Commissioner Alexis Hill who received angry comments from progressives and advocates for the unhoused following her vote in late March had this conclusion in a Facebook message: “The Board will be receiving statistics from the Sheriff’s Office in quarterly reports that will be on the agenda every 3 months about how they are using this ordinance and final outcomes for those affected. We will also revisit this ordinance in a year, and see if it has the intended outcome of getting more folks who are unhoused into better situations while cleaning up all neighborhoods and the local environment. Please feel free to reach out to me to discuss further.”
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