BOISE — A federal appellate court says cities can't prosecute people for sleeping on the streets if they have nowhere else to go because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
In a ruling handed down Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with six homeless Boise, Idaho residents who sued the city in 2009 over a local ordinance that banned sleeping in public spaces. The ruling could impact several other cities across the western U.S. that have similar laws.
Four years ago Boise changed its anti-camping rule to say that homeless campers couldn't be prosecuted unless all the local homeless shelters were full. But the appellate court said that didn't fix the problem because some of the shelters require religious programming and all of them limit the number of days a homeless person can stay. That means homeless campers could still face prosecution even if the shelters had open beds.
The City of Boise issued this statement Tuesday following the ruling:
"Our attorneys are taking a closer look at this complicated ruling to determine our best path forward. Options could include asking for a reconsideration by the entire 9th Circuit panel or an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. That said, key portions of the ruling seem to support how we've approached this issue to date. Specifically, our officers do not cite people for camping when our local shelters have no space."
