The high court’s ruling is already having a ripple effect on cities across the country, which have been emboldened to take harsher measures to clear out homeless camps that have grown in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Many US cities have been wrestling with how to combat the growing crisis. The issue has been at the heart of recent election cycles on the West Coast, where officials have poured record amounts of money into creating shelters and building affordable housing.
Leaders face mounting pressure as long-term solutions - from housing and shelters to voluntary treatment services and eviction help - take time.
“It’s not easy and it will take a time to put into place solutions that work, so there’s a little bit of political theatre going on here," Scout Katovich, an attorney who focuses on these issues for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told the BBC.
"Politicians want to be able to say they’re doing something,”
As opposed to concentrating and housing them in jail at 10x the cost of normal housing only to kick them right back onto the streets? What a solution.
The goal is to convince them to enter treatment. If the alternative is prison, that’s a strong incentive to get treatment.
Since when? This has been an option here for decades and it obviously did nothing to stem the issue.
No, but measure 110 made it dramatically worse.
The September plan is to start undoing that damage.