In June, the Supreme Court declared that laws criminalizing people for sleeping outside are, in fact, constitutional. Tracy Rosenthal, a tenant organizer and co-author of the forthcoming book Abolish Rent, says the Supreme Court's decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson now means it's 'open season' on people living outdoors.
Rosenthal points out the wider implications of this decision, emphasizing that societies have been conditioned to ignore the crisis of homelessness and the subsequent criminalization that comes with it, which necessitates a concerted effort to combat the carceral impulses towards unhoused populations.
Hayes and Rosenthal discuss the history of hostility toward unhoused individuals, which has long been facilitated by judicial systems that are resistant to upholding their rights, creating a cyclical narrative of exclusion and punishment.
The conversation stresses the importance of community defense and solidarity in advocating for the unhoused, pushing against municipal efforts aimed at expelling these populations, and urges listeners to rethink their understanding of housing as a basic right.
Collection
[
|
...
]