On April 3, 2024, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, together with the American Psychiatric Association, National Alliance on Mental Illness, National Association for Rural Mental Health, and National Association of Social Workers, filed an amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case Johnson v Grants Pass addressing the impact of efforts to criminalize homelessness on people with mental health disabilities and refuting arguments that such efforts are necessary to combat homelessness. As the brief – authored by the Bazelon Center and the law firm Kellogg Hansen – explains, there are alternatives. Community-based housing and mental health services are far more effective than criminal enforcement in addressing homelessness and supporting people with mental disabilities.
Johnson v. Grants Pass is the most important case regarding homelessness in decades. It will address whether laws that criminalize sleeping in public with basic protections such as a blanket – when no safe and accessible shelter options are available – violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
The five organizations argued that housing is one of the most basic and powerful social determinants of health, particularly for individuals with mental health disabilities. Though most people experiencing homelessness do not have a mental health condition and homelessness is more frequently triggered by economic factors such as job loss or debt, individuals with mental disabilities are disproportionately represented among the homeless population and so are disproportionately harmed by policies that criminalize nonviolent conduct associated with being homeless, such as sleeping outside with a blanket.
To date, over 1,000 organizations and public leaders have submitted around 40 amicus briefs opposing the criminalization of homelessness. They all submit that community-based services are more humane, more effective, and less expensive than incarceration or hospitalization. By employing these community-based interventions, governments can address homelessness and housing insecurity without resorting to criminal enforcement.
