Well I would say this was great news, but in their infinite wisdom Anchorage just voted out the incumbent conservative and voted in a very liberal mayor so I don't expect any changes in Anchorage.

Previously the 9th ruled that unless there was an open bed immediately available, homeless campers could not be removed. This was justified under the 8th Amendment, protection against cruel and unusual punishments which I thought was complete and total horseshit.

So maybe there's hopes for communities other than Anchorage.

https://www.alaskasnewssource....omeless-encampments/



Alaskans react to SCOTUS ruling on homeless encampments
By Jonson Kuhn
Published: Jun. 28, 2024 at 4:52 PM AKDT|Updated: 51 minutes ago
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - For people like Martin Mody, he says sleeping outside isn’t a choice, it’s a circumstance. Mody is among the growing number of people in Anchorage without housing, and while he’s the first to admit he’s fallen on hard times, a recent Supreme Court ruling is potentially going to make those hard times much worse.

“We’ve been sleeping outside ever since we were cavemen, so I don’t see what difference it makes other than the fact that large groups of us are sleeping outside now,” Mody said. “The court isn’t trying to solve the problem, they’re trying to complicate it. If you’re gonna ban everybody from sleeping outside, then what are we supposed to do?”

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday to enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside in public spaces. The decision overturns a California appeals court ruling that determined laws around outside sleeping bans to be cruel and unusual punishment when no other viable option is made available.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices found that outdoor sleeping bans do not, in fact, violate the Eighth Amendment as has been previously argued by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals since 2018.


The case comes from Grants Pass, Oregon, a rural town who caught national attention for fining people $295 for sleeping outside after tents started to overcrowd and take over many of the town’s public parks.

This decision comes just one day after the Anchorage Police Department CAP team began clearing sections of Fairbanks Street, in coordination with the Health Department and Parks and Recreation.

According to APD, the department was acting under the direction of the city who earlier this week called for the area to be cleared of tents and abandoned vehicles between East 40th and 42nd Avenues. APD added that prior notice had been given and that a Thursday deadline had been made clear.

Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska Mara Kimmel said she’s disappointed by SCOTUS’ decision as a member of the ACLU and as an Alaskan. While the ruling affects the entire nation, Kimmel said it now becomes even more incumbent on elected officials to acknowledge “core constitutional values” and hopes to see the city’s incoming administration work from that perspective in order to help address issues facing unhoused communities.


“It takes understanding that we need to link services together, we need to have more mobile intervention teams at our local police department and fire department, which we’re starting to do,” Kimmel said. “I think we have the makings of a solution, and we need to understand how important it is that we come together as a collective. And don’t forget about one another. We are all Alaskans at our core and we need to take care of each other.”

In response, Assembly Housing & Homelessness Committee Chair Felix Rivera issued a statement in which he makes it clear that the ruling in no way shakes his “unwavering commitment” to housing first. Rivera also stated the importance of understanding that the SCOTUS ruling addresses the criminalization and prosecution of individuals sleeping in public spaces, all of which has never been the practice or policy of the Municipality.

“This winter, Anchorage implemented the most effective Emergency Cold Weather Shelter Plan to date, so we know what works: housing with support is the solution to homelessness,” Rivera stated. “Most recently, this April, the Assembly indefinitely postponed AO 2024-39, an ordinance proposed by the Bronson Administration which would have amended Title 8 to criminally penalize public camping...In the coming months, I anticipate the incoming Administration and new Municipal Attorney will need time to review their toolbelt, assess the impact of the Grants Pass ruling and engage the Assembly in their approach.”

quote:

”If you’re gonna ban everybody from sleeping outside, then what are we supposed to do?”

See, they’re not in the solutions business, they’re in the “does this law agree with the constitution” business.

We’ve been sleeping outside for millennia, but guess what? The Industrial Revolution happened, and a couple other note-worthies, and now we don’t have to. Society’s job is to make things livable and acceptable for everyone, and part of that is maintaining sanitary living conditions for residents. I have seen more human waste lying about in public than a person should ever see in a city with working sanitation, health, and law enforcement agencies. I have sympathy for addicts, but it only extends as far as them getting help getting off the booze and dope. Living on the street because you’re a degenerate junky, at some point, needs to be more of a personal problem than a shared one.

^^^^^^

quote:

See, they’re not in the solutions business, they’re in the “does this law agree with the constitution” business.

They (SCOTUS) are definitely in the constitution business. And I’m grateful for that. The leftists view our constitution as an annoying obstacle.

Re: “Society’s job is to make things livable and acceptable for everyone”

My opinion is considerably different.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
^^^^^^
Re: “Society’s job is to make things livable and acceptable for everyone”

My opinion is considerably different.

Can you expand on that with a little more specificity? I would stipulate that at least one 'job' of the institutions of a decent society would be to ensure that we don't have to tolerate that which is intolerable for EVERYONE, and certainly what 'P220 Smudge' referring to is absolutely intolerable!

Those encampments surely must be a health hazard, and not just for the "residents." You can't have all those people crammed into an area without sanitation or bathing facilities. Typhoid, cholera, even polio and other water-borne diseases, typhus-carrying lice, and probably a number of others I haven't thought of. That wouldn't be a just a public nuisance, it would be an emergency.

^^^Truth, right there!

^^^ And yet, I don't hear anything about it.

I suspect I am not alone in thinking that providing life support for non-productive individuals, paid for by productive tax payers is not helping in the long run. Give these people a job, picking up turds in the street might be a good place to start, pay them with a warm place to sleep and breakfast. No drug money, no cigarette money, no booze money. If they want to get a second job so they can afford those things, more power to them. I am all for letting them earn some self-respect.

Yes, I am an uncaring Neanderthal who doesn't understand the realities of modern "society."

My reading might be a little bit more conservative because I understand the Court’s reasoning to overturn a ban because the 8th amendment doesn’t prevent it (it’s not cruel and unusual punishment) and that’s what the government and lower courts relied upon; this should be a 10th amendment reserved powers doctrine question. In other words, local governments may enact the ban on camping without running afoul of the 8th but may be barred from enforcement by police powers, health authorities. Once the ban is enforced, the government may have other challenges under state, constitutional rights or due process. I suspect it’ll take two or three passes in the courts.

Year or so ago Portland, Oregon's newspaper, the Oregonian, had an article about overwhelming homeless problem they interview the manager of a homeless shelter. The place had 200 beds. At the time of the interview only 4 of the beds were being used. The all time high number was 6 beds being occupied. One of the rules of the shelter was they did not permit use of drugs. The homeless chose to live on the street so they could shoot or smoke meth and heroin all night. Oregon had the idiotic idea to make hard drugs legal. Until there is a solution to America's demand hard dope there will be a significant homeless problem. Closing the border would help the constant flow of dope from Mexico up I-5 would help some. Punishing the dopers is doing them a favor, a bit of clean time incarcerated might free them up from their chosen life of slavery.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
^^^^^^
Re: “Society’s job is to make things livable and acceptable for everyone”

My opinion is considerably different.

Can you expand on that with a little more specificity?
<snip>

“everyone” includes druggies. Many of them live on the street and beg and steal to get money for drugs and food.

Except for drugs, that’s also true for non-using tramps.

If asked, most of them would answer that their situation is unacceptable, and that the government ought to provide them with food, shelter, hypodermics, and even drugs.

Call me hard hearted, but I say, “Hell no.”