Supreme Court upholds homeless sleeping ban

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal to a law enforced by a small city in Oregon that punishes homeless people for sleeping on public property.

The high court found in a 6-3 decision that outdoor sleeping bans are not unconstitutional and don’t qualify as ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ as said in the Eighth Amendment.

The decision is expected to impact cities with large homeless populations.

Pastor Tom at People’s City Mission said the ruling won’t impact Lincoln as much as the west coast.

“I think it’s going to impact smaller places, especially on the west coast where they tend to hang more,” said Pastor Tom. “I think here in the middle of America you see less people in small cities, a few but not like that. I think because the west coast attracts so many homeless people I think some of them are moving out into smaller cities nearby.”

He says he hopes cities don’t use this ruling as a precedent to stop caring about the homeless.

One man who stays at the Mission says it’s not right to push homeless people off the streets.

“It’s weird to hear something like that,” said Dan Conyers. “I mean I don’t know what I would do. What else would you do if they say ‘well you can’t stay here?’ You move two feet and what do they do to you next? I don’t know. So, yeah, it’s a pretty sad situation.”

The City of Lincoln’s Chief Communications Officer Christopher Triebsch said the city is reviewing the opinion and will discuss internally to see if there are any changes going forward.

He said the ruling doesn’t change anything immediately.