July 18, 2024

In late June, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Grants Pass v. Johnson to grant municipalities more power to arrest, cite and fine people who sleep outside in public places in California and other western states. The much-anticipated decision overturns a prior influential Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, and means cities no longer are prohibited from penalizing unhoused residents for camping if they have nowhere else to go. Cities and elected leaders across California have been eagerly awaiting the decision, as it provides clarity for how California leaders and law enforcement can handle homeless encampments in the public right of way and in public spaces. Cities like San Diego who have already passed their own laws to prohibit camping in public places if shelter options are available, now must decide whether to use existing ordinances or pass new ones to banish, cite or arrest homeless campers when no alternative shelter exists. For cities like San Francisco who have been waiting for the Supreme Court to weigh in, new legislation to regulate homeless encampments may be coming soon now that a decision has been made in Grants Pass v. Johnson. We assume that for western states, especially California, this decision will spur changes to current encampment laws and will spur the introduction of new encampment laws in jurisdictions who have stayed out of this policy area due to previous legal challenges.