Nebraska AG wants ruling on homeless camps overturned, says fecal matter, needles are toxic
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Nebraska’s top prosecutor wants local governments to be able to crack down on homeless camps, saying they’ve created a public health and safety crisis.
Attorney General Mike Hilgers has joined a coalition of 20 states that’s urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Johnson v. City of Grants Pass.
In that case, the Ninth Circuit held that the Constitution gives people the right to sleep and camp on sidewalks, playgrounds and other public property.
The coalition says that’s preventing states and local governments from enforcing anti-camping ordinances.
“You see these encampments, and you see the drugs and the human waste and all the health and safety impacts,” Hilgers said. “So, we’d just go back to allowing our cities to manage those problems themselves.”
In a statement, Hilgers said diseases such as typhus, shigella and trench fever are resurfacing in the camps.
“Encampments have led to the unsightly and unsanitary smearing of sidewalks, paths, and playgrounds with human fecal matter, discarded needles, and other biohazards,” he said.
In Lincoln, officials say the homeless population has been decreasing for decades and isn’t as much of a problem compared with larger cities.
Alynn Sampson, executive director of Matt Talbot Kitchen & Outreach, said if cities are given the power to remove encampments, those cities also need to house and care for their homeless.
“Very seldom are people choosing homelessness,” she said. “If we don’t have enough shelters, if we don’t have enough beds in the city, if we don’t have enough affordable housing, is arresting individuals the right action? We just don’t believe that that solves anything.”
CenterPointe, a behavioral health center in Lincoln, said the priority should be solving the causes of homelessness, like mental illness and substance abuse.
“Invest up front, reduce the incidence of people without shelter, and increase the solutions for people who are unsheltered,” President and CEO Topher Hansen said in a statement. “Making it criminal is not the solution. It adds to the stress of our criminal justice system unnecessarily and further harms the person.”
Sampson said when people are treated with compassion and dignity, they take better care of themselves and their surroundings.
“Providing basic needs isn’t a political issue; I think it’s a human right,” she said. “Everyone deserves to have a safe place to call home.”
But Hilgers said he isn’t trying to politicize the issue; he just wants to give local governments more freedom in handling their homeless populations.
“There’s a lot of different ways to approach this particular problem,” he said. “We’re not weighing in on behalf of the State of Nebraska saying which one is better than the other. All we’re saying is let these communities solve the problem themselves.”
