We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
CAN I GET SOME REMEDY?: CRIMINALIZATION OF HOMELESSNESS AND THE OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE AN EFFECTIVE REMEDY.
- Authors
Tars, Eric S.; Johnson, Heather Maria; Bauman, Tristia; Foscarinis, Maria
- Abstract
Many communities across the country continue to pass ordinances criminally punishing homeless persons for engaging in necessary, life-sustaining activities such as sleeping in public places in the absence of an indoor alternative. Courts have struck down a number of these ordinances, but the practical impact of these rulings has been limited both by the form of the remedy ordered to correct these constitutional violations—generally narrow injunctive and declaratory relief and small monetary damage awards—and by the persistence of local governments in taking the minimum necessary steps to be legally compliant while allowing the underlying problem of homelessness to persist. This Article reviews the types of remedies available and those ordered by federal and state courts in both criminalization and non-criminalization cases, and evaluates courts' reluctance to provide greater, more effective relief for homeless plaintiffs. Not only do U.S. courts have the ability to fashion comprehensive equitable remedies such as providing housing when traditional ones have been proven ineffective, but evolving standards among international human rights courts and national constitutional courts may eventually obligate them to do so in order to protect the human rights of vulnerable populations.
- Subjects
UNITED States; HOMELESSNESS; LEGAL status of homeless people; PUBLIC spaces laws; HUMAN rights; CONSTITUTIONAL courts; PUNISHMENT; DAMAGES (Law); CRIMINAL law
- Publication
Columbia Human Rights Law Review, 2014, Vol 45, Issue 3, p738
- ISSN
0090-7944
- Publication type
Article