Alaska Civil Rights Group supports lawsuit to protect people who sleep on the streets

By Claire Stremple

Alaska Beacon

Alaska’s American Civil Liberties Union has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule against allowing local governments to punish people who sleep outside when adequate shelter is unavailable.

“Punishing a person who is forced to sleep in public because they have nowhere else to go violates our Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment,” the ACLU of Alaska wrote in a news release.

The organization joined a friend of the court brief in support of a lawsuit, Grants Pass v. Johnson.

The case involves an Oregon city that banned people sleeping outside in public. Nationally, this type of ordinance or law, often referred to as “camping bans,” has been a method for municipalities to move unhoused people elsewhere. Advocacy groups say the bans criminalize unhoused people rather than providing them shelter or services.

An encampment of homeless people is off of 1st Avenue in Anchorage on Nov. 21, 2023. ACLU Alaska has joined a lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court not to allow local governments to punish unhoused people for sleeping in public places. (Photo by Andrew Kitchenman/Alaska Beacon)

In a similar case in Idaho last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that such restrictions are cruel and unusual punishment if the person does not have access to adequate shelter.

Last year the ACLU of Alaska filed more than a dozen appeals when unhoused people were removed from Anchorage parks while the municipality had no low-barrier shelter. Those cases have not yet been decided, according to the ACLU.

A proposal from Gov. Mike Dunleavy would increase criminal penalties for people who obstruct passage through public places. The legislation is intended to increase public safety and would affect unpermitted protests and demonstrations, but opponents of the bill have voiced concerns that it would also have the effect of criminalizing homelessness.

Homelessness is considered a public health concern in Alaska. The state’s Department of Health estimates there are 2,000 people experiencing homelessness statewide, but people who operate shelters often say the official number of homeless people in their community is an undercount.

In a statement, ACLU of Alaska pointed to state lawmakers to address the issue of widespread homelessness: “(I)t’s up to our elected officials to stop deflecting their responsibility and take real action to protect public safety, and improve housing and health in Anchorage and across the state.”

The Alaska House Finance Committee approved a request from Anchorage officials for one-time funding for a low-barrier shelter.  The committee initially rejected the request.

(This article has been reprinted courtesy of the Alaska Beacon. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. The author Claire Stremple. Claire Stremple is a reporter based in Juneau, Alaska. She got her start in public radio, first at KHNS in Haines and then on the health and environment beat at KTOO in Juneau. Her focus for the Beacon is education and criminal and social justice.)