On April 22, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court heard opening arguments for City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case that will yield the most important ruling on homelessness in 40 years. Virtually all assessments suggest that the court is likely to rule in favor of Grants Pass, a city in Oregon, and uphold its criminalization of the condition of homelessness. New Jersey can do better, and in many ways, it already is.

Every person should be afforded the right to safe and stable housing — and when that is not immediately possible, safe, dignified shelter. No one should need to resort to sleeping outside or in other places not meant for human habitation. When we as a society fail to provide these necessities, we compound the problem and make solving chronic homelessness more difficult.

New Jersey already knows how to solve chronic homelessness: Bergen County is credited as the first community in the U.S. to achieve functional zero for chronic homelessness and has gained national recognition. In Newark, the current leadership has developed a strategic plan to end chronic homelessness that has thus far reduced the ranks of the unsheltered homeless by 57.6% year over year.

Both Newark and Bergen County are Built For Zero communities — meaning they follow an approach to tackling homelessness that continues to receive international acclaim for its data-driven, continuous improvement methodology.

In both cases, the government has taken a coordinating role in driving efficiencies in the homeless-services and homelessness-prevention ecosystem, streamlined processes to provide desperately needed services and avoided criminalizing the condition of homelessness.

As both communities know all too well, citations, fines, bench warrants and arrests only serve to make it more difficult for people experiencing homelessness to exit that experience and move into permanent housing. Then there’s the added and unnecessary costs of police and corrections involvement.

‘We know how to do the work. So let’s. Let’s decide to end homelessness in New Jersey.’

There are more than enough unnecessary costs to homelessness already, perhaps chief among them misspent health care expenses. Those neighbors experiencing homelessness, whether sheltered or unsheltered, do not have access to the kind of health care experience you or I might reasonably expect. They don’t receive the same kind of treatment when they do seek health care, and are at risk of dying from preventable causes due to the lack of a safe, stable place to live.

Things like wound care — much more likely to be needed by someone living unsheltered — become nearly impossible to handle appropriately while experiencing homelessness and can easily lead to a more serious, even life-threatening situation. In all of these facets, our goal as a community should be to provide for the basic needs of our community. Failure to do so turns simple issues into compound problems.

New Jersey should take the actions of Bergen County and Newark even further — similarly lead in solving and preventing homelessness by fostering collaboration, streamlining and changing systems. We need greater investments in affordable housing, and continued investment in homelessness-prevention efforts, with eviction now the number-two cause of homelessness in New Jersey. And we need to codify protections for the unsheltered. We all benefit from promoting the right to safe, dignified shelter en route to permanent housing. We need to support municipalities in this state by developing standards and practices designed to solve and not just kick the can down the road.

The success In Newark thus far seems, perhaps, to be as simple as Mayor Ras Baraka deciding his city would end chronic homelessness there, creating a fertile environment for progress. We know it’s the right thing to do for our fellow humans. We know it’s cost-effective. We know how to do the work.

So let’s. Let’s decide to end homelessness in New Jersey. And along the way, let’s not make it harder for people trying desperately to find a safe place to sleep every night by making that harsh reality illegal. We need housing, not handcuffs.