Making sleep illegal: behavioral health impacts of public sleeping bans and proposed alternatives

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Background: In 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in the City of Grants Pass vs Johnson that local towns and municipalities may ban people from sleeping in public places, overturning a lower-court precedent that previously deemed this cruel and unusual punishment. Purpose: This position paper sought to identify effective interventions for addressing homelessness and emphasize the implications of legislature on sleep and public health outcomes. Methods: As this is a policy position paper, the opinions listed in this report have been informed by existing evidence. We provide policy recommendations for research-supported approaches addressing homelessness. Results: Successful interventions for homelessness included those that focused on providing support and increasing resources, such as the development of Safe Sleeping Zones in California, or providing individuals with housing subsidies, income assistance, or support in finding rentals. Conclusion: We provide the following policy recommendations for legislators: increased federal funding/incentives for unsheltered homelessness programs, a greater allocation of the federal budget attributed to supportive services, and increased legislation for homelessness prevention. We suggest a shift in focus on implementing more empowerment and supportive-based approaches as opposed to punitive approaches. Investing in homelessness prevention efforts has yielded long-term societal-level financial and economic benefits.

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