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# You Can’t Arrest Your Way Out of Homelessness—Only Housing Works
June 09 2025
Written by Farrah Hassen.
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THE UNHOUSED - In [the largest eviction of a homeless encampment in recent history](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/realestate/oregon-homeless-encampment-removal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.F08.2hpW.WOAOzq32H3TB&smid=nytcore-android-share), around 100 unhoused people were recently forced to vacate Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest — or else face a $5,000 fine and up to one year in jail.
The forest was the last hope for the encampment’s residents, many of whom were [living](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/realestate/oregon-homeless-encampment-removal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.F08.2hpW.WOAOzq32H3TB&smid=nytcore-android-share) in broken down RVs and cars. Shelters in nearby Bend — where the [average home price](https://www.zillow.com/home-values/50962/bend-or/) is nearly $800,000 — are at capacity, and rent is increasingly [unaffordable](https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/02/03/oregon-eviction-cases-still-climbing-despite-legislation-supporting-renters/#:~:text=Oregonians%20struggling%20to%20afford%20rent&text=Wages%20haven't%20kept%20up,all%20rental%20and%20household%20sizes.&text=Oregonians%20today%20live%20in%20a,can%20fill%2C%E2%80%9D%20said%20Rackley.).
“There’s nowhere for us to go,” Chris Dake, an encampment resident who worked as a cashier and injured his knee, [told](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/realestate/oregon-homeless-encampment-removal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.F08.2hpW.WOAOzq32H3TB&smid=nytcore-android-share) the New York Times.
This sentiment was echoed by unhoused people in Grants Pass, 200 miles south, where a similar fight unfolded. A year ago this June, in [Grants Pass v. Johnson](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-175_19m2.pdf), the Supreme Court’s [billionaire-backed](https://www.commondreams.org/news/supreme-court-gifts) justices ruled that local governments can criminalize people for sleeping outside, even if there’s no available shelter.
Nearly one year later, homelessness — and its criminalization — has only worsened.
Today, a person who works full-time and earns a minimum wage [cannot afford](https://nlihc.org/oor) a safe place to live almost anywhere in the country. The federal minimum wage has [remained stagnant at $7.25 since 2009](https://www.axios.com/2024/07/24/last-federal-minimum-wage-increase-15-years-ago-2009), and rent is now unaffordable for [half of all tenants](https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/americas-rental-housing-2024).
As a result, there are now [over 770,000 people](https://endhomelessness.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf) without housing nationwide — a record high. Many more are just one emergency away from joining them.
The Supreme Court’s abhorrent decision opened the door for cities to harass people for the “crime” of not having a place to live. Fines and arrests, in turn, make it more difficult to get out of poverty and into stable housing.
Since Grants Pass, [around 150 cities](https://stateline.org/2025/01/27/many-more-cities-ban-sleeping-outside-despite-a-lack-of-shelter-space/) have passed or strengthened “anti-camping” laws that fine, ticket, or jail people for living outdoors — including over [two dozen cities and counties](https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/05/newsom-encampment-sweep-ordinance/#:~:text=A%20month%20later%2C%20Newsom%20ordered,made%20existing%20ordinances%20more%20punitive.) in California alone. A Florida law [mandates](https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1365) that counties and municipalities ban sleeping or camping on public property. Due to a related crackdown, almost half of [arrests](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article298168818.html) in Miami Beach last year were of unhoused people.
Emboldened by Grants Pass, localities have ramped up the forced clearing of encampments — a practice known as “sweeps.”
While officials justify them for safety and sanitation reasons, sweeps harm people by [severing](https://nhchc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NHCHC-encampment-sweeps-issue-brief-12-22.pdf) their ties to case workers, medical care, and other vital services. In many cases, basic survival items are [confiscated](https://projects.propublica.org/homeless-encampment-sweeps-taken-belongings/) by authorities. Alongside being [deadly](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2803839?guestAccessKey=f321ceca-78d6-4d55-bcc5-e7a775ce1152&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=041023), research confirms that sweeps are also [costly](https://endhomelessness.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Exploring-Homelessness-Among-People.pdf) and [unproductive](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1890-4.html).
Punitive fines, arrests, and sweeps don’t address the root of the problem: the lack of permanent, affordable, and adequate housing.
President Trump is only doubling down on failed housing policies. He ordered [over 30 encampments in D.C.](https://wjla.com/news/local/34-homeless-encampments-cleared-out-across-dc-as-part-of-trumps-executive-order-making-the-district-of-columbia-safe-and-beautiful-exclusive-photos-department-of-interior-national-park-service) to be cleared based on a March [executive order](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/making-the-district-of-columbia-safe-and-beautiful/). And his [budget request](https://nlihc.org/resource/trump-administration-releases-additional-details-fy26-budget-request-slashing-hud-rental#:~:text=The%20Trump%20Administration's%20full%20budget,program%2C%20funded%20at%20$31.79%20billion.) for 2026 would slash federal rental assistance [for over 10 million Americans](https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/federal-rental-assistance-fact-sheets#US) by a devastating 43 percent (all to fund tax breaks for billionaires and corporations.)
For too long, our government policies have allowed a basic necessity for survival to become commodified and [controlled](https://ips-dc.org/report-billionaire-blowback-on-housing/) by corporations and billionaire investors. We must challenge this if we ever want to resolve homelessness.
Housing is a fundamental [human right](https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-housing/human-right-adequate-housing#:~:text=The%20right%20to%20adequate%20housing%20in%20human%20rights%20law,Economic%2C%20Social%20and%20Cultural%20Rights.) under international law that the U.S. must recognize. Homelessness is solvable in our lifetime if our country commits to ensuring that every person has a safe, affordable, dignified, and permanent place to call home.
As housing experts have long noted, governments should invest in proven and humane solutions like [Housing First,](https://archives.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/spring-summer-23/highlight1.html) which provides permanent housing without preconditions, coupled with supportive services.
Despite the obstacles, communities continue to fight back — including in Grants Pass, where [disability rights](https://www.droregon.org/releases/disability-rights-advocates-people-with-disabilities-file-emergency-lawsuit-against-grants-pass) advocates are [challenging](https://www.ijpr.org/poverty-and-homelessness/2025-05-30/grants-pass-homeless-camping-ban-expansion) the city’s public camping restrictions. Others are forming [tenant ](https://www.louisvilletenantsunion.org/)and [homeless](https://sacramentohomelessunion.org/) unions in their cities, organizing [rent strikes](https://inthesetimes.com/article/chicago-rent-strike-tenants-unions-gentrification), and pushing for [publicly funded housing (or “social housing”)](https://populardemocracy.org/sites/default/files/Social%20Housing%20for%20All%20-%20English%20-%20FINAL%203-21-2022.pdf#page=13) that’s permanently affordable and protected from the private market.
The Grants Pass decision may have opened the door to new cruelties, but local governments still have a choice to do what’s right. Now, more than ever, we must demand real housing solutions.
*(Farrah Hassen, J.D. is a columnist for OtherWords.org who has provided this article to CityWatch.)*
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