The United States Supreme Court has run amok. Impartial jurisprudence and the U.S. Constitution have been abandoned in favor of political expediency and corruption.

I can’t get into all the egregious and disgraceful decisions perpetrated by the majority of justices, but I will expose the injustice of the Johnson v. Grants Pass ruling, which allows local jurisdictions to fine and arrest people for the crime of being homeless on public property.

Move along

“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” – Mahatma Gandhi

By that standard, we truly don’t measure up.

You can’t be much more vulnerable than being homeless, especially if you’re a woman.

In 2018, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Martin v. Boise that government entities may not arrest or fine people for being homeless if there are no shelter beds for them. That court decided the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution protected homeless people from the “cruel and unusual” punishment of being fined or arrested for camping on public land when that is their only option.

In 2019, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case without comment.

But now, in 2024, six heartless members of the Supreme Court decided in Johnson v. Grants Pass that it’s okay to make it a crime to be homeless.

What’s next, debtors’ prison?

Tiny homes hoax

The Grants Pass ruling clears the way in California for Gov. Newsom and political allies to build more of their de facto detention camps under the false claim they are providing “tiny homes.”

They are not providing tiny homes. Homes have bathrooms, kitchens and  running water. They are providing beds in boxes in out-of-the-way locations designed to segregate victims of homelessness.

The only housing they’re offering is human warehousing.

Outdoor jails

You can’t arrest everybody for being homeless. The jails don’t have the capacity.

Therefore, the demand for these homeless refugee camps will increase.

Regimented rows of identical boxes surrounded by a chain link fence with “gated entry” already look like outdoor jails, which is what they will become.

People arrested for the crime of having no place to go will likely be given a choice of jail or a box in a government-sanctioned tiny hoax community. But how are you going to make people stay in a refugee camp if they don’t want to be there?

Many of the homeless people I talk with won’t stay in a government detention camp. Here in rural Nevada County, these folks will just drift back further into the wildland, creating more of a wildfire hazard, polluting the environment, trespassing on public and private land, jeopardizing their own health, and moving away from the social services designed to help them.

Reality v perception

The public perception, including many law enforcement personnel, is that all homeless people are addicts, mentally ill and/or criminals. This is simply not true.

While their numbers don’t always agree, academic, advocates, and government agencies do agree that, on average, only about one-third of homeless people have mental illnesses and fewer are substance abusers.

The truth is that the trifecta of lack of housing, high rents and low wages is the primary cause of homelessness. What’s more, homelessness is often the trigger for mental illness and/or addiction.

Bobby and Laurel

Meanwhile, the GoFundMe campaign to “Empower Bobby & Laurel’s Fight Against Homelessness” has stalled.

As I reported last month, Bobby and Laurel Hunsaker clawed their way out of homelessness and addiction. They say their journey to housing and sobriety began with the warm, nonjudgemental welcome that Dianne Weichel gave them at the cold weather shelter in Nevada City during the 2022-23 winter.

Dianne is a Sierra Roots board member and the nonprofit’s food & clothing manager.

Clean and sober, the Hunsakers both found full-time jobs at the Nevada City SPD Market, but they didn’t forget who helped them. They are now Sierra Roots volunteers and role models.

Just as they were beginning to get their lives stabilized this spring, their car died, jeopardizing the jobs they love.

Dianne and I have been so impressed with Bobby and Laurel’s progress and can-do attitude that we felt compelled to raise money to help them buy a car.

It must be noted, Dianne and I are working as private citizens, not as representatives of Sierra Roots.

Although we have found several cars, inspections determined they needed cost-prohibitive repairs.

We are extremely grateful to John Volz Sr. for his advice and generous donation and to John Volz Jr. for the courtesy inspections at Volz Bros. Automotive in Grass Valley.

Between GoFundMe and private donations, we’ve raised more than $6,000, but inflation has really hit the used car market. We must raise more.

So, once again, please look in your garage, your wallet and your heart to help this intrepid couple continue to beat the odds against addiction and homelessness – and to serve as an inspiration to the people who look up to them. Please make a donation to “Empower Bobby & Laurel’s Fight Against Homelessness” at https://gofund.me/1e8f2a78.

Columnist Tom Durkin is creative director of the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project, which is funded by the Upstate California Creative Corps as administered by the Nevada County Arts Council. He may be reached at tomdurkin@sierra-roots.org.