LOS ANGELES — As the nation’s highest court heard arguments this week in a case expected to shape homelessness policies in the years to come, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath listened angrily.
The case involved a small Oregon town seeking to rid its streets and parks of encampments, and leaders across California had joined in calling for the Supreme Court to take up the issue, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and L.A. City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto.
But not Horvath.
When the Board of Supervisors voted a couple months ago to throw its support behind Grants Pass (population approximately 39,000), Horvath was one of two dissenting votes. While others called for the Supreme Court to clarify whether cities have the right to enact anti-camping policies that restrict those with no shelter from sleeping outside, Horvath warned of unintended consequences.
If the high court were to rule broadly in favor of Grants Pass, which has a policy of fining and arresting homeless people who sleep outside with simple bedding, Horvath said, the precedent could “further enable cities to push people from community to community, without a commitment to housing or services.”
On Monday, after the high court’s conservative justices indicated during oral arguments that they are skeptical of treating homelessness as a status that deserves constitutional protection, Horvath said the future will be bleak if cities are allowed to clamp down by criminalizing poverty.
“Saying that the only way we can get ourselves out of this problem is by citing people for having a blanket on the ground or for daring to sleep on a park bench is absurd — just absurd — and I would also say immoral,” she said. “All we will be doing is pushing people from one place to another, and we’ve been doing that for decades.”
She’s not the only person alarmed.
The risk, according to Horvath and others, is that the Supreme Court could enable laws hostile to homeless people to expand broadly across the American West, amplifying the frustrating and dangerous proliferation of encampments in cities that are attempting to deal with the problem through supportive services, substance abuse treatment and housing programs.
Supervisor Hilda Solis, the other no vote on the county board, agreed, saying a ruling in Grants Pass’ favor would “open a can of worms.”