Boise asks Supreme Court to OK ban on homeless camps on city property

Lawyers for Boise asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to overturn a lower court ruling on homeless encampments, arguing cities across the west will lose control of their homeless situations if they can’t impose criminal penalties on lawbreakers.

Legal counsel for the Idaho capital said their laws prohibiting sleeping on public property are an attempt to keep residents safe and to promote public health and sanitation.

But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that the law was unconstitutional. That court said Boise didn’t make enough beds available in its homeless shelters, so ticketing people who end up on the streets is illegally cruel.

Boise called the ruling “catastrophic,” saying it cripples more than 1,600 cities within the 9th Circuit’s jurisdiction. That includes Los Angeles, which is seeing a record number of homeless individuals.

“Public encampments, now protected by the Constitution under the Ninth Circuit’s decision, have spawned crime and violence, incubated disease, and created environmental hazards that threaten the lives and well-being both of those living on the streets and the public at large,” Boise said in its appeal.

According to court documents, one of the encampments, which used to be a public skate park for youth, saw a murder in 2014 when violence erupted between the campers.

Physical violence and drug use has also increased, according to the filing.

Boise told the justices that the 9th Circuit’s ruling conflicts with other cases, which could entice the high court to hear the case and settle the dispute.