Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 28, 2024 / 14:10 pm
The U.S. bishops strongly condemned the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling in a pivotal homelessness case, calling the court’s decision “a direct contradiction of our call to shelter those experiencing homelessness and care for those in need.”
In the 6-3 decision, issued in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Gloria Johnson, the court ruled that cities can arrest or fine homeless individuals for camping in public spaces.
Writing on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Borys Gudziak, head of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said that “ticketing and arresting people for it [being homeless] is a counterproductive approach to the problem of homelessness” and that “criminalizing homeless is not the response to caring for those in need.”