Newswise — As the Supreme Court wraps up its term, there are a number of major decisions to come. Among them is a decision in the case City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, with implications on whether state and local governments can ban public camping by homeless individuals when no shelter beds are available. For reporters looking for experts to provide commentary or analysis on this case and its implications, the following academics are available and happy to comment:

Chris Herring
Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of California Los Angeles
Herring worked as a lead author on the amicus brief by social scientists submitted to the Supreme Court for Grants Pass v. Johnson. He has also served as the expert witness on major cases relying on the ruling in San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, and Minneapolis. Herring's research focuses on poverty, housing, and homelessness in US cities and has been published in the leading social scientific journals.
Email: [email protected]

 

Curtis Smith
Professor of Sociology, Bentley University

Smith's research focuses on homelessness, inequality, social policy, immigration, and social movements. Smith’s writings include detailing how complex it is for social service workers to house their homeless clients, methodological issues related to “point-in-time” homeless counts, health issues among Hispanic immigrants in low-income housing, public policy, social movements, and activism related to the homeless. His research is informed by his previous experiences employed as a homelessness street outreach worker in the Midwest, South, and Mountain West.

Email: [email protected]

 

Megan Welsh Carroll
Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Public Administration, Director of the Project for Sanitation Justice, San Diego State University
Welsh Carroll teaches and writes about homelessness, health, and the criminalization of poverty. Her research uses a community-driven framework in which she partners with individuals and organizations to understand local community needs, design and execute research, and produce data-informed recommendations to solve problems.
Email: [email protected]

 

Jennifer Nations

Managing Director, Homelessness Hub, University of California-San Diego

Nations studies inequality and the distribution of public and philanthropic resources in multiple domains, from higher education to city finances to homelessness services. Nations leads multiple research studies at Homelessness Hub, where she focuses on applied research that supports policy and program change. This includes grant-funded studies about housing instability, affordable housing, transportation, evictions, and health. It also includes philanthropy-funded research on homelessness service availability and accessibility and the government processes that structure program design and implementation.

Email: [email protected]