‘Vulnerable residents continue to be criminalized by our judicial system,’ nonprofit CEO says of ruling.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on June 28 impacting individuals staying outdoors could have serious implications on the rising homelessness crisis in Montgomery County, say local advocates reacting to the 6-3 decision.
The case of City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson focused on whether a municipality can ban people from sleeping or camping in public areas, such as sidewalks and parks. The court ruled that such bans are legal, a decision that riled local advocates for the homeless.
“It’s going to put a lot of people at risk … who are already on the margins who are going to run into the situation where they start to accrue citations, and suddenly they have a criminal record just because they had nowhere to sleep,” said Mike Hays, co-founder of the Montco 30% Project.
In Montgomery County, rates of homelessness keep rising, as the county has gone two years without an operational brick-and-mortar homeless shelter. The Coordinated Homeless Outreach Center, operated by Resources for Human Development, served as the county’s only shelter for single adults before closing in June 2022 when the lease lapsed. No new facility has been rebuilt.
“While unsurprising that our most vulnerable residents continue to be criminalized by our judicial system, it is deeply painful to see this outcome played out so vividly, during a national and local housing affordability crisis,” HealthSpark Foundation President and CEO Emma Hertz said in a social media post.
“HealthSpark Foundation will be working with our partners in Montgomery County and across the country to organize around this ruling, finding ways to hold every level of our government accountable for providing real solutions and investments into housing affordability and safe, indoor shelter,” she continued.
In recent months, sweeps of homeless encampments have taken place across Montgomery County in Norristown and Pottstown. Nearly 30 individuals who were situated along the Schuylkill River Trail in Pottstown were told they had to vacate the area. Legal advocates filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, citing that the borough did not offer suitable options.
The judge’s decision, issued in November 2023, permitted the borough to move forward but prevented borough officials from arresting those camped there, or using the threat of arrest, to accomplish the task.
“The two places that there have been sweeps and … where there’s a lot of heated public debate around the issue of visible homelessness, I expect that those are the places where we’ll see increased activity … to sweep people or to tell them that they have to relocate,” said Mark Boorse, director of program development for Fort Washington-based Access Services.
Pottstown has a homeless population of roughly 120 individuals, with around 56 who’ve had to move several times over the past six months, Boorse said.
“This decision does not give people the tools to address homelessness, it just gives them the power to punish it,” Boorse said of the federal ruling.
Hays agreed, adding that “from a local government standpoint, it just allows an easy excuse or an easy off ramp for people to find and punish, instead of trying to come up with the long term, real solutions such as short term shelter, long term shelter, more affordable housing.”
“So I think from a policy standpoint, it just really kicks the can down the road in a cruel way,” Hays said.
Hays was among several representatives who spoke at a rally last week ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court decision. Organized by several local nonprofits, including the Norristown Hospitality Center, Montco 30% Project, Better Days Ahead and Habitat for Humanity, the conversation focused on the county’s homelessness and affordable housing crises and the impacts it’s had on people outdoors. Speakers urged attendees to contact elected officials at the local, state and federal levels. While advocates like Hays were disappointed by the ruling out of Washington, he implored people in Montgomery County not to give up.
“Now is definitely not the time for people to become discouraged, and to sit on the sidelines, and not do anything,” he said. “Now is definitely the time to double down on our efforts to talk to our local elected officials and try to come up with a compassionate way to move forward.”
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