On April 3, 2024, the National Women’s Law Center joined the Center for Constitutional Rights, Transgender Law Center, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Make the Road New York, and 41 other organizations in filing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Gloria Johnson et al. The brief, authored by Andrea Chinyere Ezie, Mikaila Hernández, Zee Scout, and Jeremy Burton at the Center for Constitutional Rights, argued that this case has a direct impact on LGBTQIA+ people because of the disproportionate rates of homelessness that LGBTQIA+ people, especially trans people of color, experience due to bias and discrimination.
On April 22, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral arguments for this case. At its core, this case will decide whether cities are allowed to punish unhoused people with fines, fees, and criminal penalties for sleeping outside with as little as a pillow or blanket, even when there are no safe shelter options. This is the most significant case that SCOTUS has chosen to take up regarding the rights unhoused people in decades.
Grants Pass, Oregon, like many cities across the United States, has a vast housing supply shortage and no safe shelter options. The city passed ordinances that punish unhoused people with no place to go through fines, arrests, and jail time. Issuing more tickets or putting unhoused people in jail will not solve the homelessness crisis in Grants Pass or anywhere else. The solution to homelessness is safe, decent, accessible, and affordable housing for all.