The Supreme Court’s Grants Pass decision is a setback for the unhoused in Santa Cruz County

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I worry about our unhoused population. 

I fear the Supreme Court’s June 28 Grants Pass decision is already impacting our community. The decision, passed by a 6-3 conservative majority, allows further displacement of those without homes and reduces accountability for law enforcement and city officials when they break up camps, destroy belongings and issue citations. This is terrible news for those living outside and those like me, who advocate for their well-being.

In the majority opinion, the court sided with the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, allowing the punishment of people for sleeping in public even if they have no place else to go. This decision overturns Martin v. Boise, a significant legal victory in 2018 for people without housing and their advocates.

In Santa Cruz, where the high cost of housing contributes to one of the highest per-capita homelessness rates in the country, Martin ended a decadeslong sleeping ban. It shifted the city’s priorities toward providing services and support rather than strict bans and heavy-handed policing. While it did not completely transform the city’s approach, it softened it, offering some additional help to people while still policing visible homelessness.

Martin affirmed that cities already had ample policy tools to address illegal activities and public health concerns related to homelessness. Despite this, cities like ours complained that Martin “tied hands” and led to “devastating results.”

Evidence proves otherwise: In Santa Cruz and across California, with Martin in place, police continually displaced unhoused communities and destroyed their belongings, even during the pandemic. Officials and police claim they do this to “prevent entrenchment,” but this exacerbates rather than solves problems, leaving people living outside both more exposed and less connected.

Since 2018, Santa Cruz has cleared out encampments multiple times. Neither the city nor the county track those events or publicly report on those displaced, so the exact numbers are not available.

I witnessed some of these clearings, and the inhumanity of pushing people out and destroying their belongings is visceral. It even inspired me to run for political office.

In 2021, a Santa Cruz City Council majority passed the camping standards and services ordinance (CSSO) with “time, place, and manner” restrictions rather than a full sleeping ban, relatively low fines and subjective police enforcement. This approach might seem friendly and flexible, but often results in unequal application of laws, coupled with inadequate shelter, services and support.

The oversized vehicle ordinance (OVO) operates similarly to the yet-unenforced CSSO, but with a blanket ban on parking or sleeping in larger vehicles overnight anywhere in the city. These approaches seem designed to stay just within the legal bounds of Martin v. Boise.

Now even that small legal protection is gone.

In a July 5 Lookout article, Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley said he “accepted” the Grants Pass decision, while Vice Mayor Renée Golder went even further, saying on this issue she agreed with conservative justices who wrote the majority opinion. 

I worry about how quickly the ruling will give officials “permission” to engage in less humane practices. We are already seeing this in San Francisco. At a recent election debate, San Francisco Mayor London Breed discussed the impact of the Grants Pass decision on her administration. 

“The problem is not going to be solved by building permanent supportive housing or shelter alone; we have to start cutting off the opportunities that exist in San Francisco,” she said. “Effective August, we are going to be very aggressive and assertive in moving encampments, which may even include criminal penalties.” 

She directly thanked the Supreme Court and said, “We have had to move from a compassionate city to a city of accountability.”

Given the comments and actions of city staff and councilmembers over the past six years, there is a very real possibility that Santa Cruz will be tempted to follow Breed’s lead.

We already see signs of this, with repeated clearings of Coral Street in recent months and the posted notice to vacate the Pogonip by July 29, where many people have relocated from Coral Street and Harvey West Park.

Housing Matters, a leading service provider for the unhoused,  recently issued a statement against the Grants Pass decision. Yet, administrators and the board supported the removal of people camping outside its office. This baffles me. 

I was also shocked to read emails in which Housing Matters encourages city officials to clear and fence Coral Street in early June. The same week, Housing Matters sent out its “June Good Neighbor News,” including a link to a post about how ticketing and arresting people is counterproductive.

While I understand the need to protect workers, community members and other clients, especially families with children, simply moving along people with serious disabilities has not solved anything. It’s an endless cycle of whack-a-mole. 

In her stinging dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticizes an argument often heard in our local city council meetings: “The majority’s framing of the problem as one involving drugs, diseases and fires, rather than people trying to keep warm outside with a blanket, provides the court with cover to permit the criminalization of homeless people.”

As I and many others have said, we don’t need CSSO, OVO or any other new ordinances to regulate or punish people who don’t have housing. Liberal Justices Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown-Jackson agree.

In this moment of a shifting legal landscape, we must resist regressive policies and instead champion a vision of equity and dignity for everyone. We already have all the tools we need, let’s build our political will to see them through.

Joy Schendledecker is an artist, community organizer and educator. She ran for mayor of Santa Cruz in 2022 and for city council in 2024. She has lived in Santa Cruz with her family since 2015.