Ahead of Trump term, US cities grapple with homelessness

WASHINGTON: US cities are grappling with a quickly changing landscape in how to respond to a worsening homelessness crisis, following a ground-breaking Supreme Court decision in June and ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January.

Proponents of more punitive options are feeling emboldened, as cities from Phoenix in Arizona to Fort Lauderdale in Florida step up enforcement even as others such as Philadelphia and Providence, Rhode Island, eye new protections.

Known as the Grants Pass decision, the June Supreme Court ruling gives local officials new powers to criminalize sleeping in public, even if adequate shelter space is not available. In the aftermath of the Grants Pass decision and ahead of Trump’s second administration that begins on Jan 20, interest from local officials in anti-camping and related policies has sky-rocketed.

“I can’t think of a state that’s not interested in working on this,” said Devon M Kurtz, public safety policy director with the Cicero Institute, a conservative think tank that has spearheaded anti-camping laws in multiple states.

“The demand is infinite. I have quadrupled my team in the last year, and I can’t keep up with the demand.” In Oklahoma City, city councillor JoBeth Hamon, said she was “nervous” about the impact of the Supreme Court ruling, even though the city has been taking new steps in recent years to get more homeless people into housing.

“I’ve heard from council members that we also need a stick -- punishment or criminalization or accountability,” Hamon told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. In Rhode Island, municipalities have introduced policies to fine or ticket someone for sleeping outside on public property, said Miguel Sanchez, a city councillor in Providence.

While Providence’s mayor has not planned to follow suit, Sanchez is seeking more permanent safeguards, and in November proposed barring such penalties. “This is a very bare minimum, but it also adds an extra layer of protection,” he said, noting such local actions are taking on additional importance with Trump’s re-election.

“All politics are local ... and that sentiment will become all the more important right now,” said Sanchez. Trump’s transition team did not respond to a request for comment, but during the campaign he promised to “use every tool, lever, and authority to get the homeless off our streets”.

Since the Supreme Court’s decision, more than 90 local bills have been passed and another 65 are pending to punish people for sleeping outside, said Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director with the non-profit National Homelessness Law Center.

Another 20 cities and states have moved in the opposite direction, saying they will not mete out such punishments. “What we feared would happen is happening across the country,” Rabinowitz said. “Cities are moving very quickly to pass laws that make homelessness worse.”

LOCAL CONTROL

US homelessness has surged following the pandemic. It reached more than more than 770,000 people in January 2024, up 18 per cent from 2023, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Those numbers have worsened with the end of pandemic-related aid, but are driven by a lack of affordable housing across the country, exacerbated by rising inflation and stagnating wages.The Grants Pass decision reversed a lower court’s ruling that said local jurisdictions were not allowed to ban rough sleeping if they did not have enough shelter beds available.