California's liberal Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked the Supreme Court to help him solve the state's homelessness crisis by allowing him to ban rough sleeping.
Justices agreed Friday to consider whether a lower court erred in ruling that a ban on homeless people in public places was unconstitutional.
This comes after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that anti-camping ordinances in San Francisco violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Newsom has repeatedly promised to “take charge of the problem” as the city faces an exodus of businesses from a city plagued by drug use, and has urged the nation's highest court not to “tie his hands.”
“California has invested billions to combat homelessness, but the court’s rulings have tied the hands of state and local governments in addressing this problem,” he said Friday.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom claims that “the bench’s decisions have tied the hands of state and local governments in addressing this problem.”
The city is expected to record over 800 drug deaths in 2023 – which would surpass its highest year on record, 2020, when 726 people died
In the streets of San Francisco's Tenderloin district, pedestrians must make their way through streets full of unconscious and semi-conscious people
“The Supreme Court can now correct course and end the costly litigation delays that have marred our efforts to clear camps and provide services to those in need.”
A quarter of a million people have fled the Bay Area since the start of 2020, Newsweek reported in June.
The governor said the state is investing in behavioral health and mental health reform and claims to have taken 68,000 people off the streets and eliminated 6,000 encampments since he took office in 2019.
However, many of those camps were removed for the APEC summit in November, which brought Joe Biden and Xi Jinping alongside other world leaders and thousands of delegates to the city.
And residents told that the problem has returned with a vengeance since the security barriers were removed.
“It's really bad, worse than I've ever seen,” said Howard Ul, 60, manager of the Golden State Donut Shop in the Tenderloin.
“Every corner here is like garbage now.” They're all back.'
The district court ruling restricted interventions in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
A separate court ruling lifted the ban on homeless people “using a blanket, pillow or box to protect themselves from the elements.”
A map shows the major companies that have left or are planning to leave San Francisco in recent months
California currently reports over 170,000 homeless people, including 7,800 in San Francisco
Drugs are openly traded on the streets of this homeless area
Newsom insists he is taking responsibility for California's worsening homelessness crisis
In San Francisco, 620 overdose deaths were reported in the first nine months of the year
Newsom's office filed an amicus brief in September asking the Supreme Court to clarify “that state and local governments can take appropriate action to address the homelessness crisis, the health and safety risks to those living in encampments.” and brings our communities with it.”
Theane Evangelis, an attorney for Grants Pass, the Oregon city that filed the appeal, told Fox News: “The tragedy is that these decisions are actually harming the very people they purport to protect.”
Lawyer Theane Evangelis said: “The tragedy is that these decisions actually harm the very people they purport to protect.”
“We look forward to presenting our arguments to the Supreme Court this spring.”
Around 100 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the COVID pandemic – a decline of more than 50 percent from 2019.
The office vacancy rate hit a record 34 percent in September as rising crime drove businesses out of the city center and economists warned the city was entering an “urban doom loop.”
Looting in particular became a major problem for the city, while rampant theft led to the demise of San Francisco's main shopping district, Union Square, and forced many major chains and local businesses to permanently close their doors.
Starbucks, Whole Foods, IKEA, Nordstrom and the Disney Store have closed some of their San Francisco locations due to the city's drastic crime problems.
In October, LinkedIn made the top five floors of its 650,000-square-foot, 26-story building available for lease through December 2027 and laid off 668 employees.
A few months earlier, Meta announced that it was ready to vacate its 435,000-square-foot building in San Francisco once its lease expires in 2031.
Companies like Airbnb, Paypal, Slack, Lyft and Salesforce have also left tens of thousands of square feet of buildings in the city in the past year.
The city is expected to record over 800 drug deaths in 2023 – which would surpass its highest year on record, 2020, when 726 people died.
A analysis of cuts facing key departments in San Francisco shows the police department faces $18.5 million in savings and public health budgets could lose $26 million
By one count, nearly 8,000 people were on the streets or in shelters across the city last year
August was the month with the highest deaths, with someone dying of an overdose every nine hours on average – while October saw an average of two people die per day.
Grants Pass has argued that homeless camps lead to more crime, fires and even the “re-emergence of medieval diseases.”
But attorney Ed Johnson, who challenged the city in court, said, “The question is whether cities can punish homeless residents simply for not having access to shelter.”
“Yet some politicians and others cynically and falsely blame the justice system for the homelessness crisis in order to distract the public and deflect blame for years of failed policies.”