(C) Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural This story was originally published by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Supreme Court’s Grants Pass Decision Could Set Precedent for Homelessness in Other Rural Counties [1] ['Claire Carlson', 'The Daily Yonder', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar'] Date: 2024-06-26 Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Keep It Rural, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Like what you see? Join the mailing list for more rural news, thoughts, and analysis in your inbox each week. June is nearly over, which means the U.S. Supreme Court will soon break for a three-month recess. But their work isn’t done yet: several decisions on landmark cases need to be made before the Court’s term ends. Top of mind for me is the City of Grants Pass v. Gloria Johnson case, which considers the constitutionality of homelessness regulations in Grants Pass, Oregon. Even though the case involves Grants Pass, homelessness policy nationwide will be affected by the Court’s decision, and it could have serious implications for rural places with fewer resources to address homelessness. The History First, some background to understand homelessness policy today. The eighth amendment of the U.S. constitution prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments” by the federal government. In 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case of Martin v. City of Boise, in which people who had been or were currently unhoused sued the city for issuing citations against public camping when there was no temporary shelter space available. The court found this to be in conflict with the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause and decided against Boise, preventing other towns from invoking similar restrictions on public camping when there is no alternative. Whether towns are allowed to restrict public camping when there is no shelter space could change depending on the Supreme Court’s decision in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case. Grants Pass v. Johnson Under the regulations Grants Pass wants to invoke, people could be fined $295 for sleeping in public. The fines multiply if they go unpaid. After several citations, people can be jailed for up to 30 days. These regulations are currently under an injunction, which means they can’t be put into effect. In the Supreme Court case, the city has claimed that issuing fines and short jail sentences to people sleeping outside does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause. The unhoused or formally unhoused respondents to the case – Gloria Johnson and “all others similarly situated” – argue it does. If the Supreme Court decides in favor of the city, the injunction on Grants Pass’s homelessness fines and jail time would be lifted. It would also pave the way for other cities to invoke similar policies. There’s only one consistent overnight homeless shelter in Grants Pass, and it has a high barrier to entry. Clients must abstain from all substances, including nicotine. Clients are also required to attend Christian church services. The shelter provides 138 beds in total. Roughly 600 people are homeless in Grants Pass, according to a 2019 point-in-time count from the state of Oregon. Josephine County, of which Grants Pass is the county seat, has the third highest rate of homelessness in the state. Two coastal counties in the northern part of the state – Clatsop and Tillamook – claim the first and second highest rates, respectively. According to a Daily Yonder analysis, Josephine County is a small metropolitan area with roughly 45% of the population defined as rural by the U.S. Census Bureau. Clatsop and Tillamook counties are both categorized as nonmetropolitan, with 69% of Tillamook County’s population and 39% of Clatsop County’s population defined as rural. If you’ve ever been to Oregon, you might assume that the city of Portland has the highest rate of homelessness – it’s certainly most visible there. The data says otherwise, and it highlights an issue that’s often ignored when talking about homelessness: the places that need the most support based on their per capita homelessness rates are often rural, but state and federal governments tend to underinvest in them. For example, in 2023, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed into law a $200 million spending package to address the state’s homelessness crisis, which is one of the highest in the country. Governor Kotek granted Oregon’s most populous counties – Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington – between $4,000 and $6,000 for every unsheltered person. In Clatsop County where one of every 40 individuals is unhoused, just $1,500 was provided per person. Grants Pass’s Josephine County got none of this money when it was first allocated because the county’s commissioners did not declare a homelessness state of emergency. In the fall of 2023, Governor Kotek allocated funding to more counties, including $2 million to Josephine County. The county plans to add 16 more shelter beds and rehouse 31 households with this money, according to reporting from the Oregon Capital Chronicle. However, this won’t be enough to shelter the estimated 600 people who are homeless in Grants Pass, which brings us back to the Grants Pass v. Jackson case. If the court decides in favor of the city, hundreds of people in Grants Pass will be at risk of citation or jail time because they’re sleeping outside, even though there is no alternative. And other towns might follow suit. For rural counties like Oregon’s with fewer homelessness services, this could mean unsheltered rural people are criminalized at higher rates per capita, depending on how their local governments respond to public camping. The Supreme Court has extended their term into July, which means a decision on the Grants Pass v. Johnson case might not happen until next week. Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. 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