STATEMENT: Supreme Court allows punishment for homeless sleeping. Defend the right to rest.
STATEMENT: Supreme Court allows punishment for homeless sleeping. Defend the right to rest.
Today’s decision is another blow for housing justice as SCOTUS ruled to further criminalize homelessness. This is a failure by our country’s highest court to uphold the basic civil liberties we should all have: the right to have a place to sleep at night. Since COVID, Oregon has seen an unprecedented wave of homelessness brought on by predatory rent increases and the commodification of housing. The result is that it’s becoming harder for people to get inside, so our streets, bridges, freeways and parks are becoming filled with more people who have nowhere else to go due to skyrocketing housing and living costs, red tape, and overinvestment in criminalizing poverty.
We applaud our partners at the Oregon Law Center for their legal defense of our houseless neighbors’ right to rest and common decency. State and local governments must do all that they can to address homelessness. This includes things like increasing funding for truly affordable housing, expanding health care coverage, and, at the bare minimum, rejecting the false notion that jails and fines solve homelessness. Regardless of today’s regressive decision by SCOTUS, the Community Alliance of Tenants remains committed to ensuring we all have access to safe and affordable housing and demanding adherence to the laws that prevent government from criminalizing houselessness.