Ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson misses the mark on homelessness

Originally published in MinnPost. 

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled on City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, which grappled with the growing issue of homelessness and whether cities can criminalize camping on public property when no other shelter is available. 

While the ruling, which supports the enforcement of camping bans, has far-reaching implications for how communities address homelessness, it is worth stepping back to look at what we know about homelessness in Minnesota. How can we work toward addressing homelessness in our local jurisdictions and prevent this solvable issue from becoming a national-level court case?

The Minnesota Homeless Study, conducted every three years by Wilder Research, helps tell the story of who is experiencing homelessness in our state and the reasons behind it. More importantly, data informs the types of services and policies that could help — or hurt — those who are homeless. Conducted in partnership with government agencies, tribes, service providers and advocates, the 2023 Minnesota Homeless Study included thousands of in-depth interviews with people experiencing homelessness.

In October 2023, 47% of adults experiencing homelessness were on a waiting list for public housing and another 10% could not get on the waiting list because it was closed. One-third of homeless adults had been turned away from a shelter in the previous three months; a majority of them ended up sleeping in the most precarious locations available: outside, in a car or vacant building, or on transit (62%). From service providers across the state, we have heard again and again that shelters are stretched nearly to the breaking point due to the complexities of this population, staffing shortages and lack of adequate long-term funding.

Decades of Minnesota Homeless Study data show that more people are unsheltered today than in the past. In October 2023, 28% of adults experiencing homelessness had spent a week or more sleeping outside, compared to 13% in October 2009.

People who have spent more time sleeping outside are also those who have been homeless multiple times, have repeatedly moved from place to place and have been homeless for a longer part of their life. The unsheltered population has multiple, complex needs that limit their ability to get housing, especially in a competitive rental market. The majority of people who have slept outside for a week or more have spent time in jail (70%), have a significant mental health condition (69%) or have been in treatment for substance use (61%).

To be clear, the most common challenge to finding housing, regardless of how much time someone has slept outside, is affordability. Half of those experiencing homelessness cited “no affordable housing” as a main barrier, followed by credit problems, having no local rental history and a criminal background.

Michelle Decker Gerrard

In addition to these challenges, people who have slept outside for a week or more experience higher rates of violence and sexual exploitation while homeless (64%, compared with 51% of those who had not slept outside in the previous month). Experience with trauma and violence are shockingly high in both the Twin Cities metro and Greater Minnesota, an issue explored in a recent publication on mnhomeless.org. This is a clear indicator that we need to get people into safe and stable housing, not further punish them for being forced to sleep outside.

Stephanie Nelson-Dusek

Communities across the United States are deliberating ways to address homelessness and preserve the safety and well-being for all community members. Given that people sleeping outside have more complex health needs and larger barriers to finding housing, the answer cannot be creating more obstacles. 

To end homelessness, Minnesota must fund housing for people with very low incomes, increase substance use and mental health treatment services, and invest in critically underfunded emergency shelters and supportive services that meet the complex needs of our unsheltered community members.

Michelle Decker Gerrard is co-director of the Minnesota Homeless Study and Stephanie Nelson-Dusek is a research scientist at Wilder Research.

This article first appeared on MinnPost and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.