SPOKANE, WA — After filing a lawsuit against the City of Spokane for three ordinances it claims violate the Washington State Constitution, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington said it believes the unconstitutional codes impose cruel punishment on people facing homelessness, as stated in an ACLU press release.
Being fought on behalf of current and former unhoused Spokane residents as well as a nonprofit organization that aims to provide outreach, Jewels Helping Hands, the lawsuit argues “because homelessness is not a voluntary or willful act, criminalizing homelessness is cruel and therefore unconstitutional.”
The Spokane municipal codes being challenged in the lawsuit include a misdemeanor for camping and sleeping on public property and sitting or lying between the hours of 6 and 12 a.m. on public property enclosed by a designated zone. The third ordinance gives the city authority to remove, destroy, and store the property of those cited for unlawful camping, said the ACLU.
“We cannot arrest our way out of homelessness and poverty,” La Rond Baker, legal director for the ACLU of Washington.
Baker added, “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 ACLU noted there are about 2,390 unhoused people in Spokane, but the Department of Housing and Urban Development came up with roughly 955 experiencing homelessness.
However, the ACLU-WA believes the reports have underestimated the actual number of those without shelter.
Recognizing the severity of homelessness in Spokane, the ACLU-WA also stated in its press release that homelessness “disproportionately harms Black and Indigenous people and people of color.”
