Homeless people could lose the right to sleep on sidewalks if Western cities have their way

[Elderberry]

LA Times by  Benjamin Oreskes 9/25/2019

As California and other states in the West continue to wrestle with an explosion of homelessness, a growing number of local governments have set their sights on a court decision that has allowed people to legally bed down on sidewalks overnight.

On Wednesday, the city of Los Angeles will join L.A. County and dozens of other municipalities in submitting an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to Martin vs. City of Boise — a landmark lawsuit involving seven homeless people who were cited for camping on public property in Boise, Idaho.

If the court were to take up the case, which is far from certain, it could reverse a decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that has prevented cities and counties from sending law enforcement to enforce ordinances to shoo away homeless people or to clear their encampments.

The deadline to submit amicus — or friend-of-the-court — briefs is Wednesday.

More: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-25/boise-homeless-encampment-amicus-brief-supreme-court-appeal-cities

[Sanguine]

I wish them success.

[PeteS in CA]

In California, the effect of this is that even were the politicians running the Land of LA, SF, and San Jose to summon the will to clean out the bums and their crap (literal and metaphorical), they cannot, not without producing thousands of shelter beds with suitable personal space. I've posted this here before, I think, but:

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3528995,-121.911984,226m/data=!3m1!1e3

That blue shape and white-gray stuff visible between the Guadalupe River Trail and the Nimitz Freeway (above) is a bum encampment I drive by every weekday. And in the picture below, that stuff between the parking lot and Ridder Park Drive is another bum encampment I drive by every weekday. There's a construction site about a quarter of a mile down Ridder Park that has an on-site security guy (guys?) 24x7. I'm not sure the security presence would be that constant without the bums being nearby.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3811382,-121.9003722,86m/data=!3m1!1e3

[Smokin Joe]

In California, the effect of this is that even were the politicians running the Land of LA, SF, and San Jose to summon the will to clean out the bums and their crap (literal and metaphorical), they cannot, not without producing thousands of shelter beds with suitable personal space. I've posted this here before, I think, but:

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3528995,-121.911984,226m/data=!3m1!1e3

That blue shape and white-gray stuff visible between the Guadalupe River Trail and the Nimitz Freeway (above) is a bum encampment I drive by every weekday. And in the picture below, that stuff between the parking lot and Ridder Park Drive is another bum encampment I drive by every weekday. There's a construction site about a quarter of a mile down Ridder Park that has an on-site security guy (guys?) 24x7. I'm not sure the security presence would be that constant without the bums being nearby.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3811382,-121.9003722,86m/data=!3m1!1e3

Is google obscuring the images? The trees look like bad photoshops, especially if you zoom in.

[dfwgator]

Right?