A US Supreme Court ruling could impact how Houston handles its homeless population

Cities are allowed to enforce bans on unhoused people from sleeping outside.

HOUSTON — A United States Supreme Court ruling on Friday could impact how cities like Houston address homelessness.

The ruling said cities can enforce bans on unhoused people from sleeping outside.

For Houston, there's no direct impact from the ruling, but it does open the door for the city to consider new measures.

The Supreme Court sided with a town in Oregon to allow cities to enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside in public spaces.

Advocates argued that the ban violates the constitution's 8th amendment against cruel and unusual punishment if people were ticketed for sleeping outside when there's no shelter space available.

Local groups said cities like Houston can't ticket their way out of the homeless issue and hope government leaders aim for long-term solutions.

"It allows for us to have a deeper conversation about any of these strategies or interventions where we're placing more barriers on an individual to move forward out of homelessness -- it's not really going to solve the issue," Coalition for the Homeless President and CEO Kelly Young said. "In fact, the only thing that will solve the issue is ensuring that we have enough permanent housing available for those that require it."

Houston Mayor John Whitmire's office sent KHOU 11 News a statement that said, in part, "My administration has developed a sensible homeless plan that I'll release soon. ... We can do better and will study the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to understand what additional effective measures it allows."

According to data from the Coalition for the Homeless, snapshot counts of homeless people in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties have gone down from about 4,000 in 2020 to about 3,200 this year.