As domestic violence and housing costs skyrocket, the Supreme Court’s answer to the crisis of homelessness is more cruelty.
Survivors are left without choices. If they are sleeping outside or in their cars, they are threatened with fines and harassment. Homeless to escape abuse, survivors and their children become more vulnerable to continued abuse and sexual assault while living outside or doubling up with people who take advantage of their situation.: “I’m here now because I left the house. I just needed to leave because it was more physical and more violent.
Grants Pass passed a law that fines and tickets homeless individuals for sleeping outside. The U.S. Supreme Court took up the case inSurely, we thought, SCOTUS will see how the decks are already stacked against those who experience homelessness and will see these policies for what they are: cruel, unusual and ineffective.Criminalizing survivors is costly for survivors, their children and our communities. It is unconscionable. It is absurd.
A mom from Oregon and her four children are proof that simple solutions and investments make all the difference. She and her kids, all under the age of 6, were forced into homelessness when they fled abuse. Low vacancy rates and high rents meant that there were no apartments available to her, and shelters were full.