One Year Since Grants Pass: Tracking the Criminalization of Homelessness

In June 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that punishing a person for sleeping in public, even if they have nowhere else to go, does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause. In Grants Pass v. Johnson, plaintiffs argued that an Oregon city’s ordinance, which barred people from sleeping outside in public using a blanket, pillow, or even cardboard sheet, was cruel and usual punishment. In a 6-3 decision, the court upheld the camping ban, opening the door for other cities and states to pass laws to jail, ticket, or otherwise make it a crime to be homeless.

In the past year cities across the country have introduced over 320 bills criminalizing unhoused people, nearly 220 of which have passed. Under these ordinances, unhoused people could be saddled with thousands of dollars in fines and even jail time for sleeping outside, even if there are no shelter beds or housing options.

The Grants Pass decision has emboldened policymakers at every level and now, federal action may accelerate that trend. In late July 2025, President Trump issued an executive order, urging cities and states to ticket, arrest, jail, and forcibly institutionalize unhoused people. The order seeks to expand involuntary commitment and threatens evidence-based substance use treatment. This threatens people with mental health disabilities and substance use disorder regardless of housing status. Coupled with sweeping cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, the order could make it harder to access voluntary, community-based treatment, deepen economic instability, and push even more people into homelessness.

Laws that make it a crime to be homeless waste money, make communities less safe, and make it harder to solve homelessness. Instead of passing counterproductive laws, lawmakers must instead focus their energy on ensuring that everybody has a safe place to call home. By ensuring that everybody has housing and support that meets their needs, we build safer, healthier, more just communities.

Learn more about the fight to stop these bills at Housing Not Handcuffs.

Learn more about the state of homelessness in the U.S. and why we need real policy solutions here.