At the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 favoring laws enacted in Grants Pass, Oregon, penalizing sleeping and camping in public places — including sidewalks streets and city parks.
The majority opinion found the city’s penalties — which include a violation on first citing, and a Class B misdemeanor on the second and beyond — did not overstep the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment.”
While nearly one-third of the country’s homeless reside on the West Coast, south western Kentucky is not immune to this decision.
Hopkinsville Police Chief Jason Newby said his department is awaiting Kentucky Revised Statute and other regulations to be handed down after July 15 — with no intention to abuse the law, nor target the homeless population of Christian County.
If anything, Newby says he and his officers finally have some true guidance.
In several instances, Newby said HPD has already had to deal with the growing homeless population in and around Hopkinsville.
Some, he noted, are locals, but many are transient — weaving in and out of the community fabric. Most, if not all, are without a job, and typically possess an alcohol or drug addiction, or perhaps some degree of a mental illness.
Assistance, he added, is always offered — but not always accepted.
However, Newby said incarceration can offer rehabilitation — and point those with problems to the correct resources.
As such, Newby is asking the public to not think of this new law “criminalizing homelessness.”
In 2022, then Eastern Kentucky University graduate student Shannon Elyse Catron published a thesis titled “The Scope of Homelessness in Kentucky,” which served as a major presentation for the Kentucky League of Cities.
It revealed data for all 120 counties of the Commonwealth, and painted a stark picture for some municipalities — particularly Christian County.
On the night of the annual point in time count, 110 individuals were experiencing literal homelessness, or roughly 0.15% of Christian County’s population.
Of those:
*Five were unsheltered
*50 were in an emergency shelter
*And 55 were in transitional housing, three of those between the ages of 0-to-17
*17 were between the ages 0-to-17
*Two were chronically homeless
*12 adults self-reported with a serious mental illness
*Six adults self-reported a substance abuse disorder
*16 self-reported that their current episode of homelessness was the result of domestic violence
*52 identified as military veterans, all of which were sheltered
*And 58 children were reported experiencing McKinney-Vento homelessness, which under the law provides rights and services to youths experiencing loss of housing, economic hardships, staying in motels, shelters or transitional housing, or in cars, parks, abandoned buildings or substandard housing, and it ensures access and transportation to free, appropriate public education.
In 2023, K-Count results listed Christian County with 88 individuals of various ages experiencing some form of homelessness.