The Supreme Court confronts a public health challenge: Homeless encampments

Discussion in 'Human Rights' started by kazenatsu, Feb 29, 2024.

  1. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The Supreme Court confronts a public health challenge: Homeless encampments

    Homelessness is a soaring public health crisis, with a record 653,000 unhoused people in the United States, according to federal estimates. Tent and recreational vehicle encampments have exploded in recent years, crowding streets and sidewalks from Portland, Oregon, to New York. In California, where roughly a third of all the nation’s homeless people live, doctors are scheduling appointments at encampments to treat widespread chronic disease, rampant drug abuse and mental illness -- health conditions that worsen with homelessness.

    In April (2024), the U.S. Supreme Court will delve into an issue central to the plight of those living in homeless encampments: whether they can be fined or slapped with criminal charges for living or sleeping outdoors when there’s no shelter or housing available.

    The situation on the streets is causing major political upheaval. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom (Democrat) is plowing $750 million into clearing encampments -- with the elusive promise of shelter -- while homeless advocates fight to stop it.
    Newsom is asking California voters to approve a $6.4 billion bond to create thousands of new homeless housing units and behavioral health treatment beds to get people off the streets.

    But it's a small city in Oregon called Grants Pass that took the battle to the Supreme Court.

    In an amicus brief, Governor Newsom argued that clearing encampments should be allowed and that it can help provide services to unhoused people living in "inhumane conditions", and that "the courts have tied the hands of state and local governments."

    Yet a growing body of evidence suggests sweeps can worsen the health of people in encampments while causing turmoil in their lives and for the people trying to care for them.
    A study published last year in JAMA also found that displacing homeless people from encampments can lead to higher hospitalizations -- raising health-care costs -- and cause serious infections and early death.

    "A lot of people on the streets with mental illness live with the fear that anyone who’s trying to help them might get them hospitalized against their will or put in jail," said Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. "So when encampments are being cleared by law enforcement, it totally upends people’s lives and violates that trust in a way that they’re going to be more resistant to help."

    But with housed Americans in both parties clamoring for their streets to be safer and cleaner, the health concerns of homeless people aren’t always a priority for politicians.​

    "The Supreme Court confronts a public health challenge: Homeless encampments", by Angela Hart, McKenzie Beard, KFF Health News


    related threads:
    Why housing advocates oppose a new California law designed to help the homeless (posted in Civil Liberties, September 18, 2022)
    (original title of thread was "California passes law allowing homeless with mental illness to be harassed and imprisoned" )

    California governor announces sweep of homeless encampments from state roads: ‘I’m fed up’ (posted in Current Events, November 28, 2023)
     
    Last edited: Feb 29, 2024
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