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Page Number: 11.0

6 

CITY OF GRANTS PASS v. JOHNSON 

Opinion of the Court 

lenges associated with homelessness, many States and cit-
ies  have  pursued  a  range  of  policies  and  programs.  See 
2020  HUD  Report  14–20.    Beyond  expanding  shelter  and 
affordable housing opportunities, some have reinvested in
mental-health  and  substance-abuse  treatment  programs.
See Brief for California State Association of Counties et al. 
as Amici Curiae 20, 25; see also 2020 HUD Report 23.  Some 
have trained their employees in outreach tactics designed 
to improve relations between governments and the home-
less they serve.  Ibid.  And still others have chosen to pair
these  efforts  with  the  enforcement  of  laws  that  restrict 
camping in public places, like parks, streets, and sidewalks.
Cities Brief 11. 

Laws like those are commonplace.  By one count, “a ma-
jority  of  cities  have  laws  restricting  camping  in  public 
spaces,”  and  nearly  forty  percent  “have  one  or  more  laws
prohibiting camping citywide.”  See Brief for Western Re-
gional Advocacy Project as Amicus Curiae 7, n. 15 (empha-
sis  deleted).    Some  have  argued  that  the  enforcement  of 
these laws can create a “revolving door that circulates indi-
viduals  experiencing  homelessness  from  the  street  to  the 
criminal justice system and back.”  U. S. Interagency Coun-
cil on Homelessness, Searching Out Solutions 6 (2012).  But 
many cities take a different view.  According to the National 
League of Cities (a group that represents more than 19,000
American  cities  and  towns),  the  National  Association  of 
Counties  (which  represents  the  Nation’s  3,069  counties)
and others across the American West, these public-camping 
regulations  are  not  usually  deployed  as  a  front-line  re-
sponse “to criminalize homelessness.”  Cities Brief 11.  In-
stead, they are used to provide city employees with the legal 
authority  to  address  “encampments  that  pose  significant 
health and safety risks” and to encourage their inhabitants
to  accept  other  alternatives  like  shelters,  drug  treatment 
programs, and mental-health facilities.  Ibid.