Boise Appeals Ruling on Sleeping on Streets

You may recall seeing a decision announced last week that had to do with banning members of Boise's homeless community from sleeping on the streets. When I first came across the story, I thought to myself "wow, that's pretty rough". Of course, the story detailed that this proposal by the City of Boise was denied in court. Now, the City of Boise is appealing that decision.

It's a difficult topic, in a sense. While I lived in Spokane, Washington the homeless population was pretty big-- often times, in the downtown area, it meant that crime was higher than ideal and safety wasn't the best. Many people had concerns that such a LARGE presence of homeless as soon as you pulled into town made the city look bad. But--do these people have a choice? Oh--and are the all "bad"? Of course not.

The City of Boise was denied an anti-camping ordinance because the initial court ruling says that banning people from sleeping outdoors is unconstitutional if the people who it affects don't have any other choice.

You can read more about the issue at hand (and even see the court documents), HERE.

What do you think about the issue? Does it feel at all "cruel" that the homeless would be banned from sleeping in the one place they have access to?

Better yet-- interested in helping our homeless community here in Boise? Click HERE, to learn about one of my favorite downtown charities, the Corpus Christi House and find out how you can help out!