Social scientists amicus brief filed in Supreme Court Case on homelessness

Public Justice, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization, filed an amicus brief on behalf of more than 50 social scientists in the landmark Supreme Court Case on Homelessness. Katie Calhoun lent her expertise in homelessness, housing insecurity, guaranteed income, direct cash transfers to the group. Calhoun is a community-engaged researcher studying policy and community responses to homelessness and poverty.

Below is an excerpt from the  amicus brief:

“The enforcement of laws criminalizing homelessness has been shown to have wide-ranging and lingering negative impacts on those experiencing homelessness, which create significant barriers to exiting homelessness…Anti-homeless laws like the scheme in Grants Pass serve no penological purpose. Research consistently shows that the enforcement of anti-homeless laws fails to deter any behavior or to sustainably accomplish the goals lawmakers purport to have.”

This brief is just one of more than 30 amicus briefs filed in support of upholding the Ninth Circuit decision including members of Congress, medical professionals, law enforcement associations, faith-based orgs, advocates and other academic leaders. All of these briefs can now be found on the Supreme Court website.