US Supreme Court under scrutiny for criminalizing homelessness
4 Min Read
Advocates against homelessness protest in front of the Supreme Court as the court intends to penalize homeless people amid a high rise in mortgage prices and no space for shelter.
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Activists demonstrate at the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 22, 2024. (AP)
Crowds gathered in front of the US Supreme Court in light of a controversial case that entails imposing penalties on homeless people, according to a Sputnik correspondent from the scene, as the volume of homelessness in big US cities continues to rise.
The crowds held banners that said "Housing Justice," "Housing Not Handcuffs," "Housing Dignity," and "Housing Solves Homelessness."
Hannah of Food Not Bombs DC told Sputnik how the group sees that homelessness should not be a crime.
"We don’t believe that if you find yourself one day without anywhere to go, without shelter space, you are not a criminal and we should not be treating people that way," she said, expressing hope that making homelessness a crime goes against the Eighth Amendment due to the current proceedings.
Hannah continued, "We serve free food to anyone who wants it, no questions asked, every Saturday at McPherson Square... We've been operating in DC for I believe over 11 years now and we have no plans of stopping that any time soon."
Read more: Trump vows to tackle homelessness, confront tech giants if re-elected
78-year-old Nathylin Flowers Adesegun, one of the leaders of the advocates against homelessness Vocal NYC, told Sputnik that the Supreme Court hasn't acted for 40 years about housing the homeless but now acts in the complete opposite direction.
“Now they are making it a criminalization to be on the street in the USA. Just think about that, they charge you more money [for rent], they arrest you, and criminalize you because you are poor and homeless. That’s wrong at every level,” Adesegun said.
More for 'Israel', less for American people
It is worth noting that Adesegun, homeless after being evicted in 2015, protested sending aid to "Israel", especially after the House approved an aid package for Ukraine, "Israel", and the Indo-Pacific on Saturday.
“No, not a penny more. They [Israel] were getting $38 billion a year before this war [in Gaza] and now your money, my money, our money… they are killing people, innocent people. They are just destroying people’s lives; they starve to death there. It must be stopped now,” Adesegun continued.
A civil rights union leader with Vocal NYC, Jon McFarlane, relayed to Sputnik that a free democracy entails someone not being institutionalized because they can't afford to shelter themselves.
"What we are doing out today is fighting to end homelessness, to make sure that homelessness does not become illegal in our country," McFarlane said, adding that people are protesting "for the right to be unhoused; it should not be illegal because you don’t have somewhere to live. Just because you can’t secure a roof over your head does not mean that that roof should lead to a jail cell."
"The solution is that 90,000 vacant apartments that are in New York City right now, the solution is to house these people... Why not house these people? Why not give them jobs?"
This comes as the Supreme Court is due for oral arguments to determine whether the rules of a small city of 40,000 inhabitants in the US state of Oregon, Grants Pass, are considered constitutional. The city council decided to impose a nearly $300 fine for violations of such rules.
Of all US States, California is reputed for harboring the most extensive homeless population in the US.
As of December, the number of homeless persons in the US has risen to its highest level since 2007, and data from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) found that homelessness spiked by over 12% in 2023 affecting a total of 653,104 people.
