Writing Portfolio for Angie S. Maher

The U.S. Supreme Court just handed down one of the most disgusting, dehumanizing and degrading decisions of my lifetime.

As Oregon Public Broadcasting explained, the high court’s June 28 ruling allows the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, to regulate and penalize homelessness. “The court’s decision found that Grants Pass’ policy penalizing people who sit or sleep on public property did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment,” that news organization reported. “Importantly, the court’s six conservative justices determined it is up to the states — not the federal courts — to determine how these restrictions are made.”

The citizens of Lancaster — both the city and the county — are not of the same ilk as the leaders of Grants Pass, Oregon, who have shut off the water in that city’s public parks, closed public restrooms and imposed penalties for resting on public property.

Some wish that the unsheltered would just “go away,” but we are a people firm in our faith, humbled by our humanity and emboldened by our empathy for those on our streets.

Sadly, the unsheltered here have even fewer places to go now, with the closing in late June of Lancaster County Homelessness Coalition’s 40-bed shelter, which was Lancaster’s only low-barrier homeless shelter. As LNP | LancasterOnline has reported, housing leaders are preparing to open a new 80-bed shelter later this year, but that won’t happen until December.

Most of us, even the privileged among us, recognize that life happens to all of us at one point or another, and sometimes that means we are forced out of our homes for one reason or another. And with the price of housing in Lancaster, it is getting even harder to afford to live in this “promised land,” a land rich in so many ways — rich in its farm soil, rich in its heritage of hospitality, rich in the economic sense.

As Oregon Public Broadcasting explained, the 6-3 Supreme Court Grants Pass v. Johnson decision overturned a 2018 decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case known as Martin v. Boise: “In that case, the appeals court found that the Idaho city could not enforce an ordinance that banned sleeping on public property if there wasn’t available housing or shelter to accommodate unhoused people. It said to do so would violate the Eighth Amendment.”

The high court ruling opens the door for inhumane treatment to legally take place.

Promisingly, state Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El of Lancaster is working with his fellow Democrats in the state House on legislation that would clarify that homelessness cannot be criminalized in Pennsylvania. “This legislation will seek to guarantee the right to be outside and the right to share in public spaces, while ensuring that local governments secure adequate low-barrier housing to accommodate the houseless population,” he wrote in an email last week to his constituents.

Isn’t poverty punitive enough? Isn’t it punishment enough to live with no shelter, no place, no home?

We, the concerned citizens of Lancaster County, should not stand for the penalizing of unsheltered folks who sleep in public places. There are many organizations, many community groups, many faith communities that are banding together to fight for the rights and dignity of the human beings who may not currently be able to afford the ever-rising costs of rent in our county.

Most faith traditions are mandated to treat the poor, the outcast, the foreigner, with respect and dignity, to ensure their well-being.

Instead of fining people who obviously have no money to pay such fines, let’s put our time and energy into truly solving the problem of homelessness. Let’s get our folks off the sidewalks and into reasonably priced housing. It would be a win-win for everyone. There are many nonprofits and community groups that would happily work with our city and county leaders to come up with reasonable and realistic solutions. And if those leaders aren’t interested in those solutions, we should work dutifully in the name of justice to replace them, lest they try to make Lancaster the next Grants Pass.

So please, let’s do the right thing by all people in Lancaster County. Let’s find solutions that treat everyone with human dignity and decency. Solving homelessness is not rocket science. It simply requires some creativity, some empathy and generosity. Surely, we have enough emotional and actual intelligence to do this in Lancaster.

I have faith in us. Do you?

Angie Maher is a Lancaster resident and steering committee member of the advocacy organization POWER Interfaith. She has worked among, and with, unsheltered people in Lancaster city.