The nation's highest court will take a look at anti-camping laws that affect homeless people.
This particular case stems from Grants Pass, Oregon's effort to enforce local laws against camping on public property. The Supreme Court's decision will decide what cities can do about homeless encampments.
“This is of exceptional importance to local governments throughout the western states,” Laura Halgren, a retired San Diego Superior Court judge, said.
Tent cities are a way of life for many people in parts of the city of San Diego. There's a fierce debate about what to do with the encampments and the people who live in them.
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Either way, Halgren says the decision will have a big impact.
"The local governments and Grants Pass petitioned to the court and argued that this ruling has been applied in many inconsistent ways," Halgren told NBC 7. It has made it very difficult — if not impossible — for them to clean up encampments. They've cited to the crime, the drug use, just the blocking of public streets and sidewalks."
However, some people argue that some local governments are harming homeless people.
"On the other side, the homeless advocates, the cities, are just blaming the courts for what they have the responsibility to do, which is provide shelter for the homeless," Halgren explained.
During San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria's State of the City address, he touted the success of the city's encampment ban, sharing that the ban has led to a 60% decline in downtown homelessness since May.
"We are making progress," Gloria said. "We are clearing our sidewalks, and we are getting folks on a better path."
Many parts of local anti-camping ordinances could remain in place even if the Supreme Court rules against the ban in Oregon.
“Even if the Supreme Court reverses the Grant Pass case, that doesn't mean that the local ordinance that we currently have will go out of effect. It still would apply," Halgren explained. "Any local or state laws that are in existence now would remain. When the city council passed the anti-camping ordinance last summer, it was drafted with these 9th Circuit rulings in mind, and that ordinance would still continue to apply unless the city council were to change it."
The case could come before the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as April, with a decision handed down as soon as June.
