Homelessness is Now a Crime

Dear Friend,

I need to share some incredibly disappointing news with you.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that communities
can pass laws making it a crime to be homeless. 

SCOTUS upheld Grants Pass, Oregon’s ban on homeless residents sleeping outdoors. People experiencing homelessness can now be arrested or fined for sleeping outside. Or, as described by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, “sleeping anywhere in public at any time, including in their cars, if they use as little as a blanket to keep warm or a rolled-up shirt as a pillow” effectively punishes people for being homeless.

Nearly 12,000 young people aged 10-24 experience homelessness each year in Milwaukee. Criminalizing homelessness has a profound negative impact on a person’s educational, employment and housing opportunities, making self-sufficiency more challenging.

Research shows that unhoused young people have lifelong high rates of mental illness, suicide attempts and substance abuse. Plus, the likelihood of continued homelessness throughout adulthood.

Writing for the majority, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said the problem of homelessness is complex, but the Eighth Amendment “does not authorize federal judges to wrest those rights and responsibilities from the American people and in their place dictate this Nation’s homelessness policy.”

How we show up – individually and collectively – is not determined by a Supreme Court decision. We get to decide what type of community we live in. What, and who, we invest in.

You are part of the village showing our youth that people care about their stability and well-being.

Homelessness is complex and seems too difficult to solve. We know a proven way to resolve it. You do too! Provide housing. Period.

Which is exactly what Pathfinders intends to keep doing.

Pathfinders also remains engaged with national partners and elected officials – urging them to increase Runaway & Homeless Youth funding and to pass the Runaway and Homeless Youth Trafficking Prevention Act re-authorization.

“This decision sets a dangerous precedent that will cause undue harm to people experiencing homelessness and give free reign to local officials who prefer pointless and expensive arrests and imprisonment, rather than real solutions,” Ann Oliva, CEO of the nonprofit National Alliance to End Homelessness, said in a statement. “This tactic has consistently failed to reduce homelessness in the past, and it will assuredly fail to reduce homelessness in the future.”

What can you do?

• • • Provide a meal. Bring in dinner for youth on a Wednesday or Friday. Stay to serve the meal, then sit down and eat with them to enjoy fellowship. Find an available date.
    • Let your voice be heard. Reach out to elected officials to let them know you care about our community’s young people and request more funding for youth homelessness. Find your legislators.
    • Check out our wish list. These items are in high demand by our youth and young adults, and we change the list seasonally to match their current needs. Consider making a donation.

Summers are filled with barbeques, festivals and vacations. It is important to make memories, share time with loved ones and recharge.

Please also engage in our work before year’s end, so young people know they have your support.

Yours in partnership,

Tim Baack
President & CEO