Homelessness is an important issue — attracting the attention of the Boise City Council and the U.S. Supreme Court.
These two entities are linked by more than meets the eye — both the council and the court have the power to shape the daily experiences of homeless people in Idaho.
CITY COUNCIL
Boise’s city council heard a homelessness cold weather response services presentation on Tuesday, as requested by Councilmember Luci Willits.
Winter and housing instability put homeless people at “extreme risk” for weather-related issues like frostbite and hypothermia, which can lead to death. So local groups are looking for ways to help that vulnerable population during the cold winter months.
“Compounded vulnerabilities increase during winter for people experiencing homelessness, amplifying the need for public warm spaces and accessible, affordable housing,” Our Path Home Coordinator Saidee Jones told the council.
Our Path Home oversees dozens of partnerships to manage homelessness response, Jones said. Jones said the goal is for homelessness to be “rare, brief and a one-time occurrence.”
The agency is leveraging those partnerships to provide daytime, evening and overnight warming shelters to those in need.
Jones said the plan is to add indoor space, including via free YMCA memberships, to Our Path Home’s individual clients. Idaho Harm Reduction Project will also be open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to provide a warming space until later in the evenings, Jones said.
“There are a lot of things that are new this season that we’re looking forward to continue expanding,” Jones said.
Interfaith Sanctuary, which is offering overnight accommodations, will provide a heated patio and insulated tent. Morning check-out times will also be aligned with when Corpus Christi, another warming location, opens for the day.
There are also medical quarantine beds available for people who have COVID-19 or the flu.
“It sounds like we’ve added more opportunities for folks to get warm,” Willits said. “This is something that I think a lot about when I go out in the cold, and I have a home, and so it’s been really something that’s been heavy on my mind about those who don’t have the opportunity to have a roof over their heads.”
“The more options, the better,” Councilmember Meredith Stead said.
A complete list of warming locations is available at ourpathhome.org .
SUPREME COURT
New documents were filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in the request for the court to review Johnson v. City of Grants Pass.
Johnson v. City of Grants Pass was filed by three homeless individuals in 2018 after the southern Oregon city passed ordinances that prohibited homeless people from activities like using blankets and pillows to protect themselves from the elements while sleeping outside.
The decision in the case relied on the landmark 2018 Martin v. Boise decision, which said homeless people can’t be ticketed or punished for sleeping outside if there are no available shelter beds. That decision is binding throughout the western states in the 9th circuit.
The Johnson v. City of Grants Pass decision, which was reached in September 2022, said that homeless people also cannot be subject to administrative enforcement and civil penalties.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Boise’s request in 2019 to review Martin v. Boise. Yet Grants Pass filed an appeal to its case in August.
The Supreme Court can choose to deny the appeal, leaving things as they are, or accept the appeal. If the appeal is accepted, the court could make any number of decisions, including upholding the decision or overturning and remanding it.
If the Supreme Court upholds the case, it will become binding throughout the entire country.
Organizations, cities and states throughout the West, including in Idaho, filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court aiming to overturn these decisions.
On Wednesday, the respondents filed their brief in opposition, asking the Supreme Court to deny the petition. The brief argues that criminalizing sleeping for people with nowhere else to go is unconstitutional because it is necessary to survive, and that the 9th circuit still allows cities to ban or limit public camping.
In fact, the district court in Johnson v. City of Grants Pass wrote that the city could still ban the use of tents and limit the amount of bedding materials.
The brief also said that there are other outstanding issues with the case, including a new Oregon statute that doesn’t allow cities to punish homelessness by punishing sleeping and staying warm.
The document mentions Martin v. Boise often, but it also relies on another important case: Robinson v. California.
In that case, the Supreme Court said that California’s law that criminalized being addicted to narcotics was cruel and unusual punishment. The court held that people cannot be punished solely for an involuntary status.
The brief argued that there have been no rulings that differ from Martin v. Boise and Johnson v. City of Grants Pass. And it ultimately laid the blame on politicians, saying it was easier to blame the courts than find a solution.
“For years, western cities forewent investments in shelter capacity, housing, mental-health services and addiction treatment,” the brief said. “... There is no reason for the Court to engage with this political theater.”
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