Justice Archives - KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show · Burt Cohen

Criminalizing The Unhoused Gets Us Nowhere

·58 min·4 clips

The Supreme Court said punishing homeless people was not cruel and unusual because many cities already do it.

1. Justice Archives - KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show focuses on criminalizing the unhoused and the U.S. housing crisis. 2. Bert Cohen hosts Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and author of Always With Us, What Jesus Really Said About the Poor. 3. The episode asks whether housing policy is a moral issue or a question of personal blame. 4. Theoharis cites a University of North Carolina study showing housing the unhoused saves money through fewer ER visits, fewer hospital days, 84 fewer jail days, and a 72% drop in arrests. 5. She says the dominant public attitude blames unhoused people for their situation and treats subsidized housing as giving something for nothing. 6. The discussion turns to Martin v. Boise and the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that cities could not demolish encampments when adequate housing was unavailable. 7. Theoharis explains that the Grants Pass, Oregon, case involved fines and imprisonment for unhoused residents despite a shelter with too few beds and restrictive religious rules. 8. She says the Supreme Court’s ruling in Grants Pass became a national green light for more criminalization after June. 9. Theoharis describes the Court’s logic as allowing punishment because many towns already do it. 10. She says Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the policy criminalizing breathing and warned about a scary precedent. 11. The episode argues that the narrow reading of cruel and unusual punishment treats life on a bench differently depending on whether someone has a house. 12. Theoharis says housing insecurity is tied to low wages, expensive rents, and the lack of affordable housing across the country. 13. She says more than half of Americans are one paycheck away from homelessness. 14. She notes that 11% of New York City public school students are unhoused. 15. Theoharis says the average age of someone who is unhoused in the country is a nine-year-old child. 16. She argues that homelessness in the United States is widespread, not an aberration or a small outlier. 17. The conversation uses a direct, interview-style format with Bert Cohen pressing for legal history, policy details, and moral framing. 18. Theoharis responds in a forceful, explanatory style that moves between court rulings, housing economics, and faith-based language. 19. People interested in housing policy, poverty, faith activism, and Supreme Court decisions will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting light background conversation or no policy detail may want to skip it.

As heard by us

A steady defense of housing and dignity.

Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis and Bert Cohen make a clear moral case against treating homelessness as a personal failing, and they tie that argument to faith traditions without losing the practical side of it.

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Why you'd press play

Listen for a faith-rooted argument against criminalizing homelessness.

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