JEFFERSON CITY — The state and homeless advocates clashed at the Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday over a law cracking down on homeless encampments.
The 2022 legislation bars unauthorized camping on state land and allows the attorney general to sue cities that don’t enforce the ban.
Opponents argued to the high court that lawmakers didn’t follow the constitution when approving the measure, while the Missouri attorney general’s office argued the law was within legal bounds.
In addition to homelessness, the law also touches on a variety of other issues, including county coroners, county financial statements, neighborhood improvement districts and more.
Homeless advocates argued the law alters the legislation’s original purpose and deals with more than one subject, in violation of the state constitution.
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The title of the bill is changing laws “regarding political subdivisions.â€
Adina Rosenbaum, attorney for three housing advocates, said that no one looking at the title of the bill “would think, for example, that it criminalized individual behavior.â€
The law says that anyone found camping on state land would, after one warning, face a Class C misdemeanor, punishable with up to a $750 fine and 15 days in jail.
But Clayton Weems, representing the state, urged the court to examine the law as a whole and not provisions in isolation.
“In this particular case, the involvement of political subdivisions is a necessary prerequisite at every juncture,†Weems said.
He said the court needed to examine the state land camping prohibition in conjunction with another provision, which “requires political subdivisions to not turn a blind eye — to not encourage — the use of state lands in order to address homelessness on a local level.â€
The high court issued no decision on the case Wednesday. The Cole County Circuit Court had previously upheld the law.
If the law is upheld, major changes in how the state is addressing homelessness will be affirmed.
Springfield-based The Gathering Tree, doing business as Eden Village, which helps provide housing to people, said last year the new law would cause it to lose out on state funds for which it had been eligible.
The legislation prioritizes providing short-term shelter for homeless people, reversing a popular “housing-first†strategy to get people into permanent homes.
Eden Village had offered permanent housing, including individual housing units that sleep up to three people. Residents were allowed to live in the units longer than two years, putting the group at odds with the new state law, attorneys said.
Eden’s lawyers said under the law Eden Village couldn’t use taxpayer funds to house homeless people in individual shelters for more than two years.
Eden Village also said it operates five campgrounds for “chronically homeless†individuals but that the new law limits which encampments may receive state funds.
Eligible encampments, under the new law, must provide a “mental health and substance abuse evaluation†for individuals.
Also suing the state over the law are three individual taxpayers, Johnathan Byrd, Jessica Honeycutt and Allison Miles.
The Missouri Budget Project, Arch City Defenders, the National Homelessness Law Center and other groups filed briefs in the case in support of those challenging the law.
In other cases, the court also took under advisement on Wednesday arguments in the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ challenge to a 2021 state law boosting protections for police officers under investigation for misconduct.
The city argued the measure created an unconstitutional unfunded mandate and that it dealt with too many topics unrelated to the primary subject of the legislation.
But the attorney general’s office argued each provision in the targeted bill related in some way to public safety and that the law was valid.