by John Square III and Helen Cruz
According to HUD, there were an estimated 653,100 people experiencing homelessness in 2023, which is approximately 20 out of every 10,000 people in the United States. Unfortunately, many unhoused individuals are burdened with fines imposed by cities for sleeping in parks and other public spaces. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Helen, a formerly unhoused person who has dedicated herself to advocating for the homeless community. After her husband, two dogs, and she were forcibly removed from their encampment and the city issued her thousands of dollars in fines for sleeping in parks, Helen decided that something had to be done.
Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson concerned the rights of homeless individuals in Grants Pass, Oregon. The case centered around the city’s ordinances that penalized homeless people for sleeping or camping in public spaces. These kinds of restrictions are found in municipalities all across the country. The plaintiffs—a group of homeless individuals—argued that these ordinances effectively criminalized homelessness and violated Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling in Grants Pass upholding the local ordinance is likely to have devastating effects on the homeless community in America. Helen and I discussed her experiences with homelessness and the potential implications of the Grants Pass case in a conversation presented below.
John Square III: Today we are joined by Helen, an advocate for the homeless community who was previously unhoused in Grants Pass, Oregon. Thank you for joining us, Helen!
Helen Cruz: Thank you for having me.
John: The first question is how did experiencing homelessness affect your view of America?
Helen: It didn’t really affect my view of America, but what it did affect was my faith in humanity in general. You know, the way that people are so inhumane and cruel towards the homeless communities. I just don’t think it’s right.
John: How would you explain the problems with the current sheltering system to those who haven’t interacted with it?
Helen: Well, from my own experience. I know that at our shelter here, the Gospel Rescue Mission, what they basically do is they give you a blackout period for thirty days. If you go into the mission, they make you work for them, but they also want you to find a job. And if you do find a job, then you have to give them 10% of your wages.
You have to sign in, you have to sign out. There’s no smoking. They wake you up at 6:30 every morning. You don’t have control of your own medication. It’s almost like a jail setting—you have to surrender your medication to them. Then, if you have any kind of [physical disability], if you have to walk with a walker or a cane, and, you know, if you can’t work for him and they don’t have a bed for you.
John: I did not know that.
Helen: I mean, they can put people out in the street with a vest on to clean up litter and stuff like that? Which is fine— I get that part of it. But if you’re not able to do that because you have some type of disability, then they won’t even take you.
John: So if you can’t work you’re left to fend for yourself?
Helen: Yeah.
John: So the next question: How did the law in Grants Pass affect you?
Helen: Oh, it affected me in many ways. When I was living in the park—me and my husband—I was dealing with something in town. The next thing I knew, I got a call from him saying they had completely swept our camp. Left him and my two dogs sitting on the curb. They rolled up my tent like it was a burrito, dragging it down the sidewalk like it was a sack of potatoes, threw it in the back of their truck, and told me that I could pick it up at the police station. And when I picked it up at the police station, my tent poles were all broken and they just dumped it in the middle of the parking lot. I had photos, I had paperwork, I had everything in there. And because I had a little ice chest in there, my entire thing…everything…it was soaked.
John: That kind of goes back to what you were mentioning about, experiencing homelessness, that it made you not necessarily think poorly about the country, but about the humanity of the people in the country.
Helen: Yeah! I mean, the way that people treat people. The community here in Grants Pass thinks that [the] homeless should not even be around there. There is a whole watch group out here. They call themselves Park Watch, okay? And they will go around and they harass. They’re more vigilant than even some of the homeless out here, they harass the homeless community. They belittle them. They put them on Facebook, degrading them like they’re animals or something.
John: You participated in multiple organizing efforts around the Supreme Court case and spoke at the rally on the steps on the day of oral arguments. What called you to get involved?
Helen: Well, the day they took everything I own I went down and I filed an appeal for the park exclusion—a park exclusion here is if you get two tickets within the same park, they can exclude you from that park. After what they’ve done to my stuff and left my husband sitting on the curb with my two dogs, I was mad. So I went down and I asked all my paperwork to file an appeal. And when I got there, they didn’t have the paperwork for it. Nobody had ever done it before. So I had to physically hand-write my own appeal. And so I did, and I submitted it to the city council. Even though, you know, they didn’t rule in my favor or our favor, nevertheless, it’s opened up a big can of worms. And, you know, look at where it’s gotten me so far. You know, I wanted to see something different. And I want to see a change.
John: That leads me to my next question. What are your thoughts on the ruling in Grants Pass? Do you buy the Court’s reasoning?
Helen: Well, Jeremiah [Hayden], a reporter for Street Roots…I actually had a discussion with him, and I pretty much told him that, to me, it’s appalling that nine people dressed in little black robes hold the fate of somebody’s life in their hands. The fact that they have so much power. I just don’t think it’s right,
John: So, in terms of the case [Grants Pass], what do you believe the Grants Pass case calls us to do?
Helen: I think the call to action would be to build more housing and get a hold of your local and state governors and senators. I mean, right now, the city and city Council of Grants Pass are the ones that hold our fate in their hands. You know, we were allotted $9.37 million of American rescue money for affordable housing and public health. Do you know what they’re doing with that money? They’re building a swimming pool.
John: That’s ridiculous.
Helen: Yeah, for $11 million. That blows my mind, and I am so frustrated. And, you know, when I go to my city council—and I’m always there—they see me coming through the door. It’s like, oh, God, here she comes. But you know what? I’ll go in there, and I got an entire community of Grants Pass that are against the homeless, and I’m the only one standing up there going, “Hey, no, this ain’t right.” I don’t do [politics] very much, but I learned a lot when I was in DC this last time. Get all your politicians, your local politicians keep beating them down with emails and stuff like that, you know, get some housing built.
John: I agree. I’m going to transition to questions about housing policy. So—and you might have just answered this— what is one policy you would change to solve, homelessness in America?
Helen: Build houses. Build housing. Build, build, build. I mean, there it’s not it’s not going to get solved unless you start putting up structure, you know, and even in Grants Pass, they have one [shelter] Gospel Rescue Mission. Then we had six little houses we called Boundary Village, but they were only supposed to be transitional housing. You’re supposed to be in there for six months, get on your feet, and then you’re supposed to transition out of there into a home of your own. But we have no place to transition to. None. One percent of housing in Grants Pass is all we have. It’s very frustrating.
John: If housing were a fundamental right, like the right to free speech or education, how do you think things would be different in our country?
Helen: You know, if [housing] was a right, like freedom of speech…until society as a whole realizes that people who are homeless are not going to go away, I don’t see much [changing]. You know, Jesus was homeless. If we can’t come together as individuals then how are we going to come together as a nation?
John: Do you think that if there were the same protections as there are with the right to bear arms and free speech… that if [the right to housing] was something that people were generally more inclined to protest about or how you said to advocate for a change to their local and state politicians… How would that affect the homeless population?
Helen: Right now the homeless community over here is scared. I can try to get together rallies and stuff like that, but the fact of the matter is that they’re intimidated. They’re afraid of the repercussions that are going to happen. You know, and I don’t think that it’s fair for them to be bullied. You know, to be homeless is not a choice. We’re out here because we didn’t have a choice. Something may have happened in our lives that put us in the position that we’re in right now, you know? And we don’t want to be out here, but we have no place to go. This has impacted the entire United States. And back to Grants Pass, when I moved here there were 16,000 people, I’d been here four decades. But it’s grown and then this [case] went nationwide. It breaks my heart to think that America has fallen so far down when it comes to humanity. Yeah. You know, hey, I don’t get it. Political red tape and policies that just don’t make sense to me. How about we just come back to the basics? Be kind to each other, one another. Just come back to the basics a little bit. Quit putting all these measures and policies and everything out there.
John: Is there anything else that you would like to add to the record?
Helen: [Message to the homeless community] Don’t be afraid to be heard. Because if you aren’t, I don’t see anything changing. When I am asked, “What do you think is going to happen if they rule in favor of Grants Pass?” All hell is going to break loose. “What if they rule in favor of the homeless?” I don’t see much change because our city council will not do anything over here. You know, they have used $9.37 million for everything else except for what they were supposed to use for. And, you know, I don’t know if you read up on Tracy Rosenthal, she’s from, New Republic magazine. She’s got a pretty good article going in there, too. She was here, and I gave her a tour of Grants Pass and the parks and let her see first-hand. It’s pretty bad over here. They turned off all the water.
John: Wait, in the parks?
Helen: Yeah! They turned it off. They turned off the water fountains. They lock the bathrooms at night. So I reached out to some folks in D.C.: Ann Olivia with the National Alliance for Homelessness and some of her people over there, and they donated money. I go deliver sandwiches every Tuesday to everyone in the parks. Well, there was no water there. So, Ann Olivia and the Alliance were kind enough to donate some money to me, and I’ve spent most of my time delivering water because it’s 103 [degrees] here.
John: It’s very hot this summer. So I can’t imagine—that’s so inhumane.
Helen: Yeah. If people would stand up for themselves and just say, hey, it’s not right. And then we need the other side to go, “Hey, you know what? We’re just one paycheck away from being where they are.” They need to realize that. And instead of being so mean, try a little kindness. It’s not a handout it is a hand-up.
In the wake of the Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson ruling, Helen urges that it is more crucial than ever for individuals to advocate for the homeless community by reaching out to their local and state officials. This decision emphasizes the growing need for compassionate solutions for those experiencing homelessness, highlighting the need for policies that prioritize human dignity and access to essential resources.
John Square III is a rising second-year law student at the Howard University School of Law and a Law & Policy Intern at PRRAC.
Helen Cruz is a resident of Grants Pass, Oregon and a housing rights activist.
