SCOTUS Ruling on Homelessness May Further Endanger Domestic Violence Survivors

Homeless rights activists hold a rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on April 22, 2024, in Washington, D.C.In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled in the case of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Gloria Johnson, to uphold a law enacted by a small Oregon town that bars those experiencing homelessness from using blankets, pillows and cardboard boxes while sleeping outdoors within city limits.

The court in April heard oral arguments for the case, one of the most significant Supreme Court cases on the unhoused in over 40 years, as “camping ban” legislation exists not only in Grants Pass, but in municipalities nationwide. The ruling means that all jurisdictions with these laws are free to enforce them, and others looking to address the homelessness crisis in America through punitive measures now have a court-ordained model for doing so. According to the U.S.

“If local governments are authorized to enact local policies that allow them to find and arrest people because they are living outside, they are really being complicit in the increase of gender-based violence against survivors without homes,” Walz said. “Maybe a park looks cleaner and safer to sleep in than a home that might increase the risk of violence to a person’s body. This law says that we as a society should accept a person having to accept the risk of violence.

The domestic violence shelter in Grants Pass is small, housing a maximum of 15 families. She said that many people drive from more rural parts of the state, often for an hour and a half or two hours, to get to it because of a lack of shelter services where they are. In the meantime, she said, the Grants Pass ruling feels like a societal and cultural gesture of “throwing their hands up around domestic or sexual violence, like saying, ‘Well that’s just what’s going to happen,’ rather than having any solution for survivors of violence.”

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