Seattle rallies as Supreme Court weighs criminalizing homelessness

For Gina Owens, the parallels between herself and Gloria Johnson — one of the plaintiffs in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court about criminalizing homelessness — are all too striking.

Owens used to be a nurse, but a car crash in the year 2000 disabled her spinal cord and left her unable to work. Without a steady income, she fell behind on her rent and was evicted into several years of homelessness.

Johnson, the lead plaintiff in Grants Pass v. Johnson, was also a career nurse who retired, but was unable to find housing she could afford on Social Security and became homeless, living in her minivan on the edge of town. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in the class action lawsuit against Grants Pass, Oregon’s anti-public sleeping laws.

Owens, a leader with Washington Community Action Network and prominent homelessness activist in Seattle, spoke to a crowd of 60-70 people that afternoon outside the Nakamura Federal Courthouse in Downtown Seattle at a rally organized by the Services Not Sweeps Coalition.

https://crosscut.com/news/2024/04/seattle-rallies-supreme-court-weighs-criminalizing-homelessness