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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NON-FEDERAL MOMENT

(LAME DEER, Mont., June 28, 2024)— The StrongHearts Native Helpline (lead Amici), the STTARS Indigenous Safe Housing Center (a project of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center), the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, The Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center, and the Alliance of Tribal Coalitions to End Violence are disappointed and disheartened by the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Johnson v. Grants Pass today.

In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor referenced our collective Amicus Brief and recognized that American Indians and Alaska Natives experience homelessness as a direct result of long-standing federal policies and acts of state violence by the United States Government over a sustained arch of time. However, we are understandably enraged—as survivors and advocates—by the Court’s refusal to consider the impacts of criminalization on the cycle of homelessness experienced by AI/AN survivors of gender-based violence.

Our collective brief argued that the Ninth Circuit correctly determined that the Ordinances at issue in this case criminalized homelessness in violation of the Eighth Amendment. We stated that the effects of the Ordinances were working as intended: The City of Grants Pass looked to rid itself of the homeless population by making “it uncomfortable enough” that “they would want to move on down the road.” Johnson v. City of Grants Pass, 72 F.4th 868, 876 (9th Cir. 2023). For general information about this case, please visit here.

“Safety in your own home should be a right available to each of us,” said Lori Jump, chief executive officer of the StrongHearts Native Helpline, which served as the lead organization on the brief.  

“When it isn't, survivors have to choose between staying with an abusive partner or being unhoused due to the critical lack of shelters for survivors of gender-based violence. The criminalization of being unhoused will not only increase barriers to safety but will further isolate survivors, creating an intolerable situation. StrongHearts will continue to advocate for the right to safety for all.” 

“What is so challenging about this case is not just the signaling this will give to local municipalities and governments about what qualifies as legal responses to homelessness,” said Caroline LaPorte, chair of the StrongHearts Native Helpline Board of Directors and director of STTARS Indigenous Safe Housing Center 

“What I find to be particularly disturbing is what this case says about the United States’ collective views regarding unhoused relatives: that individuals who are experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity are somehow not part of our communities and can, therefore, be forced out via intentional and unnecessarily cruel responses to their lived experiences. It speaks, once again as it has since contact, to the pervasiveness of imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism and the necessary inversion of Indigenous worldviews: views in which we consider it a responsibility to secure belonging and safety for all of our relatives.”

As one of the amici organizations, STTARS’ work focuses on the intersection of housing insecurity/homelessness and gender-based violence. For the past seven years, we have worked in collaboration with the Gender-Based Violence Resource Network, our National Workgroup on Safe Housing for AI/AN Survivors of GBV, our National Tribal Partners, and most importantly, with survivors to uplift responses to these issues both on and off-reservation. During our STTARS listening sessions over the last two and half years, we have repeatedly heard from survivors that criminal records of any kind prevent access to safe shelter and housing. We urge the following to support American Indian and Alaska Native survivors of Gender-Based Violence: 

• Provide funding
  • tribal domestic violence shelters
  • housing/DV advocates
  • housing navigators
  • legal advocacy
  • financial assistance programs
• Increase funding 
  • transportation vouchers (bus tokens and taxis/car apps)
  • transitional housing in Indian country
  • project-based vouchers
• Create a tax base with provisions for Indian Country.
• Cancel student loan debt. 
• Remove the prohibition of construction with federal funds used to support the development of domestic violence shelters and other housing options for survivors.
• Remove artificial rules (credit checks should not be a bar to housing/shelter access).
• Extend child-tax credits.
• Increase substance abuse supports (there are more women with opioid use disorder, and they are increasingly requesting MAT services and overdose prevention.)
• Enact rent control and rent cancellation.
• Create flexible funding for survivors and programs.
• Establish low-barrier accesss.
• Educate Legislators on refraining from enacting laws that criminalize homelessness.

“Historically, the taking of Indian land and settler invasion of these lands was commonplace in the West, including the Grants Pass area, where over 2,500,000 acres of Native land was taken through the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850,” said Lucy Simpson, executive director of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.  “The City of Grants Pass lies near the Rogue River and Illinois valleys, the traditional homelands of the Takelma, Shasta, and Athabascan tribes, to name a few. Not only is Grants Pass built on stolen Native land, but it also holds a well-documented history as a sundown town. The SCOTUS decision today reinforces a deliberate legacy of imminent threats to the lives of Black and Indigenous relatives in the region through its historical status as a sundown town rooted in white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, and classism. We condemn the dangerous precedent this sets and will continuously advocate for the safety and well-being of all our vulnerable relatives across the country.” 

For more information on how you can help American Indian and Alaska Native survivors of gender-based violence in both on and off-reservation communities, please visit STTARS at www.niwrc.org/housing to sign up for the STTARS listserv and follow STTARS @safehousing4all across all social media platforms.