Posted on 07/08/2023 9:40:25 AM PDT by lowbridge
The most powerful federal appeals court in the western United States once again refused to let cities and towns force the homeless off of the streets unless communities provide shelter for them.
Cities large and small across the west coast have tried, and failed, to overturn the higher court's ruling for years, the latest of which came from the Oregon city, Grants Pass.
"We are having a situation where the police were telling homeless people that they couldn't sleep in public or private, and private property," said Grants Pass Mayor Sara Bristol. "And eventually, that kind of boiled down to homeless people feeling like they couldn't find a place to rest where they weren't being harassed."
Bristol said the ruling highlights deep political divisions in her city and county. There are currently a few solutions on the table.
"There's been so much discussion and controversy in the community that we're kind of at a standstill about what to do about it," said Bristol.
This court has dictated Los Angeles' response to the homeless crisis for years. The city was forced to accept encampment because of a staggering shortage of shelters.
But the court was more divided on this case than ever with a growing number of judges appointed by former President Donald Trump lashing out. They claimed the homeless, by occupying public space, are destroying the quality of life in many cities.
"Homelessness is presently the defining public health and safety crisis in the western United States," wrote conservative Judge Milan Smith Jr. "There are stretches of (Los Angeles) where one cannot help but think the government has shirked its most basic responsibilities under the social contract: providing public safety and ensuring that public spaces remain open to all."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
“This has empowered cities all over CA, many of which had already built shelters or hiding, but couldn’t force the “homeless” (formerly known as bums) to use them. Now they can.”
Do you have any links to this, or the name of the law? I wanna keep that on hand for reference
no newscum took over hotels and motels as shelters for the bums, and they trashed them. then demanded the cities built shelters, the bums do not stay in them because of the rules.
I used to attend a church in downtown Santa Cruz, which has a large homeless population. Only 2 or 3 of them ever came to church for Sunday service. At the Monday night soup kitchen however, the parish hall was packed with over 200 people. I Worked with our homeless outreach for a while until I realized nearly all of them didn’t really want help, and were either batsh!t insane due to mental illness or drug abuse (or both), or were sociopaths who chose to live that life. They wanted handouts, not a hand up.
The truly down and out were rare in the extreme, took advantage of the generous services the city offers, and were usually back on their feet within one or two months. Only a handful of other chronic homeless used the shelters and services.
There was only one homeless man who ever came to Wednesday bible study, an older gentleman named Robert who was, shall I say, cut of a different cloth. He was homeless by choice, but was well spoken, always clean, and had no arrest record. A very wise and kind man who could soothe my (then) infant daughter just by looking at her. He came to downtown Santa Cruz from Marin county in a kayak he built out of two liter soda bottles. The last project he was working on before he passed was building a full sized replica of Noah’s Ark. RIP Robert.
It is obvious to me that there should be emergency shelters for everyone, with no privacy and all laws enforced. Ideally they should be unpleasant but safe.
The 9th Circuit Court orders has more orders turned over by the supreme court than any other Circuit Court.
The don’t deal so much in law as much as agendas.
“name just one solution that has worked”
Sure.
In a nearby wealthy suburb I used to use the commuter bus. We had a homeless person who used to sleep on the bench at the bus stop.
A few of us met with local officials to see if we could come up with a solution.
Everyone agreed that removing the bench was worth a try.
The bench was removed and we never saw the homeless guy again.
Keep it local, work with others, keep it positive, stay positive and good things start to happen.
Don’t wait for DC to solve your problems—that is your job.
And in contrast my county in the free state of Florida just passed an ordinance banning pan handling.
Also in the tourist town 15 miles from me, homeless are banned from tourist dependant areas......to cow tow to these people to the point of negatively impacting law abiding citizens and honest businesses is moronic.
Many have mental issues and or are drug and alcohol addicted......to let them run amuck without addressing the issue of them being dangerous is negligent on the part of the city officials IMO.
Don't forget South Africa.
The cities and towns should say, “stop us”.
Apparently not. We’re rapidly turning into a third world country.
Set up a homeless camp providing free food, shelter and free drugs of choice. In a short period of time the homeless problem will take care of itself.
Simple solution: have law enforcement assist in relocating homeless camps to judge’s residences.
RLTW
“There are currently a few solutions on the table.”
SPJNK.
This is just a glob of non-sequitur nonsense:
From the article-
“There are stretches of (Los Angeles) where one cannot help but think the government has shirked its most basic responsibilities under the social contract: providing public safety and ensuring that public spaces remain open to all.”
Just here for the popcorn and watching our good Kalifornia Freeper’s denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.
What if they have road /side walk work to do… and refuse to move or go to a shelter?
All right Ninth ... you have achieved a level of stupidity equal to or exceeding that of the CDC!!!!
100 years ago, +/-, we had solutions that worked. They could be implemented again:
Incarcerate the druggies.
Put the mentally ill in mental hospitals
For the indigent open poor farms.
This is a harder problem than it seems.
The first sentence suggests that cities can keep them off the streets if they provide shelter. But often times there are not enough shelters.
It’s easy to say, “Well, lock the bums up!”, but that’s just a more expensive shelter.
Keep smirking, Ed, because SCOTUS is going to smack you down so hard -- in-person -- that your cheap sunglasses and toboggan will have to be retrieved from the SCOTUS basement.
Your case is destined for the ash heap of history, just like Roe, and if Grants Pass immediately crowd funds a GiveSendGo to hire overtime police to patrol their parks, I will match my monthly to FreeRepublic and send you pics of Rogue River's finest kicking homeless azz.
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