Open Table Nashville calls for housing options instead of laws that punish unhoused people for sleeping outdoors
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Editor’s Note
Open Table Nashville filed an amicus brief in a U.S. Supreme Court case that could affect how cities and states address homeless encampments. The outreach and advocacy organization joins other service providers and legal advocates across the country in encouraging the Supreme Court to uphold a ruling that prevents cities from punishing people for sleeping outside when they have no access to adequate shelter.
“We know that providing people with accessible, affordable, permanent housing and the wraparound services needed to succeed in that housing is what ends homelessness — not fines, citations, or jail time,” says Open Table outreach specialist India Pungarcher in a press release.
The Grants Pass v. Johnson case involves an Oregon town that seeks to enforce its ban on camping on public property. The U.S. 9th Circuit of Appeals previously ruled that such a ban violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, but the Supreme Court has agreed to review the case.
Advocates including the ACLU are urging the Supreme Court to uphold the 9th Circuit’s ruling. Elected officials in Western states have argued that the current ruling keeps them from addressing homeless camps.
A 2019 study found that sweeping homeless camps without offering any support to the camp’s members does little to “resolve the problem of encampments.” Advocates like Open Table Nashville say the response to homelessness should rely on housing-first policies rather than penalties.
In 2022 Tennessee lawmakers made camping while homeless a felony. The controversial bill was predicted to have little impact by its sponsors’ own admission, and also stirred up confusing comments about Hitler from Republican state Sen. Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains).
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on April 22, and is slated to make a decision by June 30.
