The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington sued Spokane, the state’s second most populous city, on Thursday over anti-camping ordinances that plaintiffs argue criminalize homelessness and impose cruel punishment on homeless people.
The lawsuit is reportedly the first major legal challenge against anti-homelessness laws since the Supreme Court delivered a landmark ruling in late June, allowing cities, counties, and states to enforce bans on public camping. In a 6–3 decision, the Court ruled that prohibiting people from camping in public spaces and imposing fines on those who do does not criminalize the status of homelessness and does not amount to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.
The complaint, filed in Spokane County Superior Court, alleges that the city’s three anti-camping ordinances are unconstitutional under Washington state’s constitution. The document only prohibits cruel, not unusual, punishment. In other words, if the court determines that punishment for outside encampments is cruel, that alone would constitute a violation of the state constitution.
“This Spokane case serves as another opportunity for us to build out those protections under our state constitution, which is more protective than its federal counterpart,” Jazmyn Clark, director of the ACLU of Washington’s Smart Justice Policy Program, told the Associated Press.
The first two ordinances make camping, sleeping, sitting, and lying on public property in certain circumstances a misdemeanor. Meanwhile, the third authorizes Spokane officials to remove, destroy, or sometimes store the property of those whom police have cited for unlawful camping.
In Washington, the maximum punishment for a misdemeanor is a fine of up to $1,000 or up to 90 days in jail. Depending on the degree of the offense, a court can require both imprisonment and a fine.
The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU of Washington, are composed of a homeless individual, a formerly homeless individual, and a local nonprofit that provides sheltered housing.
“We cannot arrest our way out of homelessness and poverty,” La Rond Baker, legal director for the ACLU of Washington, said in a statement. “Fines and incarceration only further entrench homelessness and separate people from essential support systems. If our state’s constitutional prohibition on cruel punishment means anything — it means that our poorest neighbors, those who lack a home, those who live and sleep outdoors — cannot be punished for being unhoused.”
The complaint states that so far in 2024, the city has prosecuted at least 114 cases of unlawful camping and sitting and lying violations. That number is slightly over last year’s, which saw at least 107 unlawful camping cases. Before 2023, hundreds more were cited after the city’s first “sit and lie” ordinance took effect in 2014.
A Spokane spokesperson said the city has not seen the complaint yet and therefore cannot comment on it.
Spokane continued enforcing its anti-camping laws following the Supreme Court’s ruling as it has done for years. Mayor Lisa Brown said the city “will continue to respond to unlawful camping and code violations through police enforcement” and other means. She noted the city would also be working with nonprofits and community-outreach organizations to “provide paths to stability” for its homeless population.
Roughly 2,000 people living in Spokane were homeless as of January, marking a 15 percent decrease from 2023. Spokane, located in eastern Washington, has a population of about 230,000 residents.
Meanwhile, California leaders have recently taken more aggressive action to dismantle homeless encampments after the Supreme Court weighed in on the public-policy issue.
California governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order last week, directing state officials to remove tents on public property while also providing social services and housing alternatives. San Francisco mayor London Breed announced similar policies, giving police and city workers more authority in dismantling homeless encampments.
On the other hand, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass continues to resist Newsom’s directive. On Tuesday, the city board passed a motion to prevent police from arresting people removed from homeless encampments in the city.