LEILA FADEL, HOST:
It's been two years since the U.S. Supreme Court decided cities, counties and states could stop people who are homeless from sleeping outdoors in public spaces. Since then, hundreds of cities have implemented camping bans. Is it the best approach? Here's Nicole Grundmeier with the Midwest Newsroom.
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NICOLE GRUNDMEIER, BYLINE: There's a smell of grilled onions and hot dogs in the air. Volunteers are cooking meals at a camp where unhoused people live near a river in Des Moines, Iowa. The volunteers are with a community group - Direct Empowerment Iowa Alliance. They've come to help feed hungry members of the camp and move a large camper the city is threatening to bulldoze. Volunteer Latosha Peters says it's been really difficult for people living there.
LATOSHA PETERS: We had a homeless Navy vet -feeding tube, throat cancer, living in a tent. He couldn't get access to food. He relies on liquids and baby formula. And we managed to put a video out to our community and ask for donations for him. And we brought him out some food, but he was starving.
GRUNDMEIER: When the Supreme Court ruled that camping bans are not cruel and unusual punishment, it changed how cities can interact with residents of these camps. Nationally, more than 300 cities in 14 states have passed camping bans. Stephanie Roth has lived at the Des Moines camp since March. She says she is mentally ill and suffers from osteoarthritis, chronic pain and fibromyalgia. She says moving frequently is hard on both her body and mind.
STEPHANIE ROTH: I really don't like how the city views the homeless and how they're, you know, trying to get us all out of sight, out of mind, into the trees. It's not right.
GRUNDMEIER: There have been fatalities when cities have bulldozed encampments. According to police and coroner reports, two people in California and one in Georgia were undetected and crushed by machinery. St. Louis, Missouri, does not have a camping ban, but the city does bulldoze encampments. KB Doman, an attorney for the advocacy group ArchCity Defenders, says there have been some near misses.
KB DOMAN: We've gotten really close. There's been times where community members have literally had to block bulldozers because the city is like, we want this camp cleared. We're coming in with bulldozers.
GRUNDMEIER: In Omaha, Nebraska, officials decided to create an encampment pilot program that started in November of 2025 after rejecting a proposed camping ban. Andrew Mitchell is an employee of Together, a nonprofit in Omaha that works with the city to provide services to unhoused people.
ANDREW MITCHELL: Instead of the city coming in and just bulldozing right away and people losing their - everything - all their belongings, their IDs, their Social Security cards, their birth certificates, which is really rough, they allowed us the time to get in and to make sure that these people had case management going on before they had to move.
GRUNDMEIER: The Texas-based Cicero Institute advocates and lobbies for camping bans. Director of Public Safety Policy Devon Kurtz says there is a small percentage of unhoused people who cannot keep themselves safe or are a threat to others. He adds it's not just a matter of safety. It's also a matter of public health.
DEVON KURTZ: It's a moral question. There are a lot of individuals who are not comfortable with structured involuntary intervention for individuals. They just don't see that as something that the state should be able to do. I do see that as something the state should be able to do in extreme situations.
GRUNDMEIER: Kurtz says he does not expect camping bans to solve homelessness, but he says they can force unhoused people to go into shelters or engage with outreach. It is an issue that continues to be a struggle for many communities as cities try to balance how unhoused people are treated, along with public safety and health concerns.
For NPR News, I'm Nicole Grundmeier in Des Moines, Iowa.
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