Two years since Grants Pass, 300+ cites have passed anti-homeless laws
Hello Housing Not Handcuffs supporters.
Two years ago today, hundreds of advocates, organizers, and individuals rallied in front of the Supreme Court to demand Housing Not Handcuffs. While we were taking action, SCOTUS heard the case of Johnson v. Grants Pass, the most impactful case about homelessness in decades. Together, we made our voices heard both in and outside of the Supreme Court. We organized dozens of amicus briefs. We worked together to change the narrative about homelessness. We reaffirmed a simple truth: everybody needs a safe place to live. Through it all, we built power and strengthened our fight for housing, not handcuffs.
About Johnson v. Grants Pass
As a reminder, this case centered on the ability for cities to jail or ticket people for sleeping outside even when they had nowhere else to go. In July 2024, SCOTUS ruled in favor of Grants Pass and against the rights of people who sleep outside, creating a devastating ripple effect that has harmed our homeless neighbors across the country and made it harder to solve homelessness.
Two years later…
In the aftermath of Grants Pass, we’ve seen more than 300 cities pass anti-homeless bills and a disturbing increase in violence and hatred towards unhoused people. States are passing increasingly cruel anti-homeless bills, with Louisiana currently advancing a bill to push homeless people into forced treatment and unpaid labor.
At the same time, the cost of living is skyrocketing, homeownership is declining, and more than 60% of people can’t afford to meet their basic needs. Instead of addressing the real roots of homelessness, the Trump administration is choosing to make it a crime to be homeless or experience mental illness. In the past several months, the administration has only intensified its attacks on homeless people and housing programs.
Tech bro billionaires got us here
The Grants Pass case did not come out of nowhere. It was part of a broader billionaire-backed effort to attack our homeless neighbors. Well before Grants Pass, far-right billionaires were already pushing to make homelessness a crime.
The Cicero Institute, backed by Palantir cofounder and Trump ally Joe Lonsdale, even authored an amicus brief in support of Grants Pass and against the rights of homeless people, all while pushing copy-paste bills to make homelessness worse in states across the country. Now they are shaping anti-homeless policies and imposing their extremist ideas all the way up to the White House.
We’re still fighting back
Thanks to the tireless work of advocates across the country, eighteen states (and counting) have introduced legislation that protects the rights of homeless people and those who serve them, with bills moving through hearings in Maryland, Connecticut, Washington, and Illinois this session. At the end of last year, California passed a bill stopping cities from making it a crime to provide food, water, and supportive services to homeless people. Just yesterday, Delaware introduced new legislation to expand protections for homeless people.
We know that solving homelessness is possible. The real solution is to provide people with the housing and support they need to thrive. What we need now is our elected leaders to ensure that everybody – not just the wealthy few – has the housing and support they need to thrive. We need housing, not handcuffs.