Statement Regarding U.S. Supreme Court’s Grants Pass Ruling

Homelessness is a tragic reality for many San Franciscans– and none of us are ok with a system where people are sleeping on our streets or in their cars. Today, the right-wing Supreme Court ruled that cities can criminally punish unhoused people for sleeping in public, even if there is no available shelter for them to go to. It is shameful that our city leaders, who filed a brief in support of this move, played a role in undoing constitutional protections for some of the most vulnerable people in our country. 

Homelessness will only ever be solved by ensuring that people have access to housing, as well as health care and good jobs. I will continue fighting to make sure everyone has these basic human needs regardless of the high court’s ruling today. 

I urge my fellow city leaders to exercise restraint and not use this new power bestowed on the city by a right-wing court– the same court that overturned Roe v. Wade– to arrest and incarcerate people for being homeless. We can and should act urgently to end homelessness in San Francisco. We should immediately fill vacant supportive housing units, ramp up street outreach, expand our shelter and housing capacity, connect people with existing rental subsidies, and prevent homelessness through our tenant right to counsel and rent relief. Nobody should be forced to sleep outside in our society, and nobody should be arrested or prosecuted for being homeless.