47th Foulston Siefkin Lecture
Housing is the solution to homelessness. However, for decades, cities, counties, and states have outlawed activities unhoused people involuntarily engage in while being forced to live outside – conduct like sleeping, sitting, and lying down.
In June 2024, the Supreme Court held that targeting unhoused people with criminal laws does not violate the 8th Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Now, jurisdictions are engaged in a race to the bottom, enacting and enforcing increasingly more punitive anti-homeless laws in the hopes of forcing unhoused people to flee to a nearby safe haven.
In his lecture, Professor Ron Hochbaum will review the history of the Grants Pass decision, its foreseeable effects, and the need for productive, rather than punitive, responses to homelessness.
More info: https://www.washburnlaw.edu/academics/experience/law-journal/foulston/index.html
