Supreme Court Ruling Made It Easier to Remove Homeless Camps—Did It Work?
Summary
The U.S. Supreme Court decided in June 2024 that cities can enforce rules to clear homeless camps, even if there is no enough shelter space. After this ruling, the number of homeless encampment removals in Oakland, California, more than doubled.Key Facts
- The Supreme Court case, City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, ruled 6-3 that clearing homeless camps does not violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel punishment.
- Before the ruling, Oakland had an average of 14.4 encampment clearances per month from 2021 to mid-2024.
- After the ruling, closures rose to an average of 32.2 per month, including many repeated clearances of the same sites.
- One homeless camp in Oakland was cleared 18 times over four years.
- Encampments were increasingly cleared in neighborhoods with higher percentages of Hispanic and Black residents.
- Researchers say the ruling may have allowed cities to expand camping bans to new areas.
- Experts question if these repeat clearances help reduce homelessness or just force people to move around.
- The study was published in the American Journal of Public Health and used public data from the City of Oakland.
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