Inside a warming shelter, Laura Gutowski reflects on how her life has changed since she became homeless two and a half years ago in Grants Pass, a former timber dump in the hills of southern Oregon. He talked about Taka in detail.
With her husband's death, she lost a steady income. She lived in Sedan and then in a tent right in front of the elementary school where her son was a former student. She was constantly moving her belongings in a hurry to avoid further fines from the police.
“I never expected something like this to happen,” said Gutowski, 55. She is one of hundreds of homeless people in this city of about 40,000 people and is at the center of a major lawsuit that will be heard in the Supreme Court on Monday to combat homelessness nationwide. has had far-reaching implications for the struggle.
After Grants Pass stepped up enforcement of local ordinances that prohibit sleeping and camping in public places, including ticketing, fines and jailing homeless people, a lower court decided it had nowhere else to go. The court ruled that the punishment amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment” by imposing penalties on people who did not comply.
Many states and cities increasingly struggling with homelessness want the Supreme Court to overturn that decision or significantly limit it. They claim efforts to address sprawling encampments, rampant public drug use and frightened voters who say public spaces are unsafe to use have been hampered.
The prospect has alarmed homeless people and their advocates, who argue that a homeless verdict would force cities back into prisons instead of solutions like affordable housing and social services. are doing.
The case highlights sharp disagreements over the difficult question of how to regulate homelessness.
Thean Evangelis, an attorney representing Grants Pass, said the Supreme Court's decision will have widespread repercussions. If the lower court's ruling is not overturned, she said, cities across the country “will have their hands tied just like they did in Grants Pass, and the encampment problem will spread across the country.”
Ed Johnson, an attorney with the Oregon Law Center, a nonprofit legal aid group that represents homeless residents, said the ruling against homeless residents would strip them of their few protections. “Can a city make it illegal for people to live outdoors when they have nowhere else to go, on every inch of city property, at all times of the day?”
The number of homeless people nationwide hit a record high last year, rising 12% to more than 650,000 people, according to federal figures.
Questions about how far cities can go in cracking down on homelessness are exploding, in part due to a landmark 2018 appeals court ruling in a case in Boise, Idaho. It ruled that punishing someone for sleeping outdoors when there is no available shelter bed violates the Eighth Amendment's protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Shortly after, a group of Grants Pass homeless people challenged the city's ordinance.
A federal judge temporarily sided with the plaintiffs, finding that the city did not have a shelter that met the requirements of the 2018 ruling.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit divided, and the city challenged the decision and asked the Supreme Court for an opinion.
Similar challenges are playing out across the West, including California, Arizona and Hawaii.
The issue has become a political vulnerability for Democratic leaders in big cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, prompting an unusual coalition with conservative groups who want judges to clarify their legal powers.
Like many cities across the country, Grants Pass has experienced the same economic and social impacts that have exacerbated homelessness for years. Rent and house prices have increased. Drought and wildfires have caused significant damage to neighborhoods, putting further pressure on already limited housing supplies. Some local leaders, including police, argue that a controversial statewide measure aimed at decriminalizing drug possession has led to an addiction crisis.
Anger boiled over in 2013, when residents began complaining about people sleeping in alleys and urinating and defecating in the downtown area, which is lined with restaurants, coffee shops and businesses. Tents began popping up in parks, including the leafy plaza along the Rogue River where the annual Memorial Day festival is held.
At a public hearing about these concerns, then-city council members told those gathered, “The important thing is to make sure that the people in our city are not sufficiently offended, and that they The goal is to make people want to move forward,'' he said. From the meeting. (In a recent interview, the member said her comments were directed at outsiders who committed crimes.)
City officials ultimately stepped up enforcement of existing ordinances that carry fines of hundreds of dollars and potential jail time for repeated returns to city property.
Since then, more and more tents have been erected in the park as people who had been camping in the nearby woods came into town to be closer to the service. The muddy area of the marquee park became known as Tent City.
In early March, a police officer in charge of maintaining order in the garrison showed some of the photos to this reporter. In one case, a boat launch had been turned into a squatter camp. Public toilets were locked by authorities and drinking fountains were turned off. A bright red portable toilet was installed, but there was no usable sink or place to wash or get clean water. Trash and what appeared to be drug paraphernalia was scattered throughout the area.
Independent mayor Sarah Bristol, who survived a recall campaign by residents angry over homeless people camping in parks, acknowledged the difficulty of a comprehensive solution given that more systemic issues are often involved. .
“This is an ongoing battle,” said Bristol, who took office after the case began being heard in court. “I believe they are local people. You can see that in many cases they are elderly or have a disability. They are just people who can find work and find housing. Not.”
But some residents believe that solutions like building shelters and providing more mental health services could end up attracting more homeless people to the town and disrupt their quality of life as tents line parks. He argues that this is unavoidable.
David Dapper, 59, who lives down the street from the park, said homeless people camping there often wander through his front yard.
He described the loud noises one night in June 2021, shortly after he and his wife moved from California. He said his wife, who had a knife, “asked me to go over there and soften the story,” and the man gave chase with a pistol. She said she saw several people surrounding her and coming towards her, prompting her to fire a “warning shot.”
“Living near a park is miserable,” he said.
Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman said other residents have also expressed concerns about safety and emphasized the law's value as a way to get people into treatment.
“I can tell you that mental health and drug addiction issues are endemic in our communities,” he said, adding that families should “splash their kids because someone 7 meters away has symptoms.” I’m afraid to take him to the pad,” he added.
But Dr. Bruce Murray, a retired physician who helped found a local nonprofit to help people living in the park, said the law is a temporary relief that ignores an unsustainable living environment for those being condemned. I was concerned that this was just a matter of concern.
“This community doesn't want to build any kind of facility, be it a shelter or an urban campground,” Dr. Murray said, adding that some of the disease and lack of resources in the park are similar to conditions often seen in refugee camps. I likened it. “I think they just want them to go away.”
One night, he was working quietly in the back room of a warming shelter, changing wound dressings for residents.
For Gutowski, whose crib was just a stone's throw away, being on the Supreme Court seemed far away from everyday life.
Gutowski said he is a drug addict and, although he is no longer using drugs, continues to struggle with anxiety and depression.
Mia Roman, the eldest daughter who lives in Arizona but remains in touch, said she wishes her mother had made other choices, such as finding a job after her children were older or being more open to accepting offers of help. Ta.
“These choices snowballed and she was left with no options,” Roman said.
Gutowski said she doesn't want all homeless people to be whitewashed across the board, and expressed concern that a loss at the Supreme Court could do just that.
“Everyone now thinks of the homeless like drug addicts. Everyone is a drug addict and a criminal and a thief and can't be trusted or something,” she said. “And a big part of that is law enforcement and the city council and how they treat us.”
As of mid-April, Gutowski was still living in the park. Social workers were helping arrange visits to apartment complexes that accepted federal housing vouchers. She found out she was eligible for a widow's benefit, which brought her money every month. She was meeting regularly with a therapist.
She hoped that once she found housing, she could begin to rebuild her health and relationship with her family. She dreamed of a place where she could hang pictures on the walls and cook seven-cheese manicotti.
“I want to do a lot of the things I used to do, but just the simplest things,” she said.
There was one exception. She cherished camping trips in the woods. “Camping, I hate camping anymore,” she said.
julie tate and kitty bennett Contributed to research.
