Recently, the Supreme Court has heard a case that could criminalize homelessness. The case comes from Grants Pass, Oregon, a city that wants to impose $295 fines for sleeping in public spaces. Of course, if you have nowhere to go these fines can stack up and compound. Repeat violations are punishable by a $1,250 fine and up to 30 days in jail. According to Bloomberg, “The respondents’ attorneys say that such a ban constitutes a form of “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, as Grants Pass does not provide shelter space.” Where do they expect them to go?
If the Supreme Court sides with the city, it could mean overturning a 2018 appeals court decision, Martin v. City of Boise. This previous decision found that the Eighth Amendment prohibits bans on sleeping outdoors for people who have no other choice. Overruling the precedent could allow other states to enact unreasonable laws similar to Grants Pass. As of April 22, the court is split on the decision.
Even blue states like California have infamously worked against their homeless population. Despite Los Angeles County being home to more than 70,000 homeless individuals, the second worst statistic in the country, Governor Gavin Newson agrees with Grants Pass’s sentiment. Local mental health organizations and experts have stood against his support of homeless criminalization, and his past actions in the state have only made the issue worse.
Atlanta’s Response
Atlanta is also home to a widely liberal constituency, one of the most progressive in the state. The city definitely does not have as huge of a homeless population as LA, with a reported 2,000 as of 2022, but what is Atlanta doing to help with this issue?
One homeless man interviewed by 11Alive describes homelessness as “sticky at the bottom and it kind of holds you”, echoing similar words I’ve heard from others. It is a merely inescapable situation. The city unlike many others is allocating funds for this community. They have pledged more than $26 million for its Lift 2.0 Initiative which could potentially house 1,500 people by next December. A disproportionate amount of people on the streets are black men, more than a third reportedly have serious mental issues, 32% have substance abuse disorders, and 20% are veterans.
As the city of Atlanta recognizes with its Lift 2.0 Initiative, housing affordability is one of the leading causes of homelessness. Several factors influence this problem: gentrification, zoning restrictions, and landlords’ desire to keep housing prices high. According to Redfin, the number of houses for sale has decreased by 6.8% year after year. This has allowed landlords in the form of private companies and businesses to buy up land, rent it out, and drive up the property taxes causing existing owners to move away. Government programs like Section 8 are made to ensure housing to lower-income individuals but the waitlists are infamously long. This program which serves the elderly, disabled, and poor can’t effectively work with these major hiccups.
Atlanta Mission Interview
Atlanta Mission is one of the largest organizations helping the homeless community in the city. In 1938, they started as a soup kitchen and eventually became this community’s saving grace. “We are a community united to end homelessness, one person at a time.” I sat down with Atlanta Mission Director of Marketing, Rachel Reynolds, to get more information on what organizations in the city are doing to help the homeless community.
What is the mission of your organization, or how do you aim to help this community in general?
“Our mission is to transform through Christ in the lives of homeless people. Our organization has been around since 1938 — around 85 years. We are committed to ensuring they have the skills to reintegrate into society. The goal isn’t to keep them here. To accomplish this, we have offered comprehensive services such as counseling, job training, life skills, childcare, etc.”
Why do you believe Americans are so conditioned into hating homeless people?
“I don’t think it’s so much an American issue. I think it’s just a people issue. We naturally fear people who are different than us. We have this automatic discomfort around them. There’s also a lot of stigma around how to interact with homeless people. Some say don’t give them money or just ignore them. This issue is people don’t know what to do to help.”
When I was researching homelessness, a lot of housing experts and activists said that affordable housing is the main cause of homelessness. Do you agree?
“Yes, I agree. There is not enough affordable housing specifically on transportation routes.”
What do you believe are good policies we could implement to help homeless people? I know other countries have housing-first initiatives.
“It’s funny because I was just in Paris, and there was a huge homelessness crisis there. Our organization has a ‘Housing And’ initiative. It’s not just housing that is the reason for these people being in this position. It’s also drug addictions, mental health issues, etc. Some people get housing but it doesn’t solve the underlying issues. We are for housing with services to address those issues as well.”
I’m not sure if Georgia and Atlanta do this, but I know other states are implementing laws against homeless people — or they get fines and tickets but can’t pay them off. What do you think about the criminalization of homelessness?
“It’s terrible. It just makes the problem worse. I’m definitely against that.”
What is the APD’s response to homeless people?
“I really have no thoughts on that. I know we work closely with the police. At times, they’ll drop them off here. I have empathy on both sides. I understand why people don’t want homeless encampments near their houses and I have empathy for homeless people who have nowhere to go. To me, it’s not black and white. As for the police, I can’t speak to that.”
Solutions
With a housing affordability crisis on our hands and bills working to criminalize homeless people’s existence, how do we work against these biases built into our system? How do we solve this for everyone involved? Another one of Georgia’s biggest cities, Athens has a government-sanctioned encampment. 11Alive states, “It is a fenced-in, security-enforced area with bathrooms, food, recreational activities, and dozens of tents. The tents are meant to give people without homes a safe place to live temporarily; the key word is ‘temporarily.’” The project director Tershant Smith said, “We are first step, alternative housing community, which means that we’re not housing anyone to keep them homeless.”
Many other countries have implemented Housing First initiatives, a concept I introduced in the interview. It is a homeless assistance approach that prioritizes permanent housing for housing-insecure individuals. This gives them a place to pursue their passions, and goals, or simply have the same security as the rest of us. Unlike other initiatives, it doesn’t require people to go through behavioral programs or completely solve problems like addiction and mental health issues. Social workers work with them while granting them housing, making it easier to improve themselves as their basic needs are met. Finland has found this initiative especially successful. It reduced housing insecurity from tens of thousands to less than 4,000 in the span of 15 years of the program. Housing First Europe states that it decreased overall homelessness by 47% and long-term homelessness by 70%.
Cities like Atlanta and Athens have proven to be committed to this community through available shelters and housing initiatives, but the rest of the country has yet to catch up. The overall sentiment in America is that these people are a moral failure — they didn’t work hard enough. They don’t know they are one paycheck away from being in that same position. Fight against the criminalization of homelessness, support and vote for housing ballot measures, and most of all, be empathetic to your fellow humans. After all, housing should be — and is — a basic right.