Boise (670 KBOI News) – The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals says Boise’s ordinance banning outdoor sleeping is cruel, and therefore the City can’t arrest people for sleeping on the streets.
According to the Idaho Press, the Court handed down a decision Tuesday, saying Boise can’t arrest people for camping on city streets…it comes from a 2009 suit filed by six people against the ordinance which banned sleeping in public.
In 2014, the City amended the ordinance to say homeless people sleeping on the streets could be arrested if there were beds available at the city’s homeless shelters, but not if the shelters were full. In it’s ruling, the Court said that was unacceptable, because some shelters have religious programming, and limit the number of days people can stay.
670 KBOI has reached out to the City for comment, but as yet we’ve not heard back from anyone.
