by Helen Cruz
Last year, on April 22nd, I stood with over 700 people from around the country in front of the US Supreme Court demanding that the court focus on proven solutions to homelessness like housing, and not on things like handcuffs and jails that make homelessness worse. Months later, SCOTUS shamefully decided that homeless people are not included in the Constitution’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment and could be ticketed or arrested for simply sleeping outside. It fell on me to break the news to my neighbors in Grants Pass, including people I had lived side-by-side with under tarps and in tents. I kept asking myself, “where are we supposed to go when we’re not allowed to sleep outside” and “where do we go when there is neither safe shelter, nor housing to go to?”
One year has passed since the oral arguments, and homelessness in Grant Pass–my home of over 50 years–and nationwide has gotten worse. The City of Grants Pass, like towns across the country, wants you to believe that it is us, homeless constituents, who are responsible for America’s growing homelessness crisis. However, the reality is that our government
officials–from the nation’s highest court to Congress and the President, to our local leaders–have failed us.
As more and more people experience homelessness and its criminalization, we demand to be treated respectfully and seen as equals by lawmakers who are supposed to represent us. They need to focus on our needs, not the needs of billionaires and businesses. To me, this means providing us with housing vouchers, lowering the rent so we aren’t forced to choose between paying for housing and affording other basic needs like food and medicine, expanding access to public bathrooms, and investing in more lawyers and organizers so we have immediate resources and support structures.
Quite literally, a life of homelessness can be a matter of life or death. As we have nowhere safer to live, we are forced to live outside. Nationally, street homeless people are murdered at a troublingly high rate, fueled by vigilantism and hatred toward the larger homeless community. In Grants Pass, pathways for permanent supportive housing seem bleak for the vast majority who need it. Many of them–including children –are instead scavenging for food. Over 300 of my unhoused neighbors were relocated to a site in a vast fenced area, with no shade protecting them from the elements of a hot summer afternoon or a cold winter frost. Many of them experienced skin burns from their bare contact with overheated pavement since they no longer had tents to protect them, and items like shoes and personal clothing taken from them during the eviction. In early January, our newly elected City Council and Mayor passed a resolution to close this site, again without helping people secure housing. Local policies like this criminalize the poor and homeless, make homelessness worse, and remind me of the days when Grants Pass was a sundown town.
Many in our country still do not realize how criminalizing homelessness severely destabilizes impacted people and their closest community ties. Evicting encampments makes it harder for
people to connect with service workers. Throwing away people’s IDs makes it harder for them to apply for housing and secure essential benefits. Lack of basic sanitation and shower facilities impacts people’s ability to show up to school or a job interview. Arresting people or forcing them into jails and hospitals for mental health issues is not the solution. Using taxpayers ‘ hard earned money to throw homeless people in jail is cruel, counterproductive, and wasteful. We need to focus on real solutions like housing and healthcare.
To live as a person experiencing homelessness does not make me or my neighbors any less human, and yet the lack of human compassion toward our community has never felt worse. This is true of those of us living in Grants Pass–a town of less than 40,000–or a city as big as New York City. All we are asking is for a place to call home, just the same as anyone else in America. Not only are these criminal justice “solutions” not cost-effective, they just don’t work. But when we actually ensure that everybody has the housing they need, everybody will be healthier, safer, and better off. When we solve homelessness, we all win. ). Whether you are someone who has spent time on the street, or are one of the millions of people one missed paycheck away from homelessness, this is about all of us. Together, we can join together and demand that our federal, state, and local politicians do their jobs and ensure that everybody has the housing and support they need to thrive.
Helen Cruz is a lifelong resident of Grants Pass and dedicated housing advocate with lived expertise of homelessness.
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