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What We’re Following
Wake-up call: On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case about whether local and state governments can make it a crime for people to sleep outside. That leaves intact a lower court ruling that deems such laws unconstitutional.
But the White House is still gearing up for its own aggressive approach to homelessness with a prominent role for law enforcement. Advocates say that they expect an executive order on homelessness that would assign new funds for police departments to remove homeless encampments and even strip housing funds from cities that tolerate these encampments. The order would be part of a broader federal strategy on homelessness. CityLab has obtained a list by the Department of Housing and Urban Development that narrows the federal government’s focus to 24 cities and states, all of which have large numbers of unhoused people living outside. CityLab’s Kriston Capps has the story: Trump’s Push To Criminalize Homelessness Is Taking Shape
More on CityLab
Reindeer Games
This month, a new Banksy work appeared in Birmingham, England, featuring a bench getting pulled by two reindeer like a sleigh. The anonymous artist posted a video to their Instagram featuring a homeless person sleeping on the bench. Banksy wrote:
God bless Birmingham. In the 20 minutes we filmed Ryan on this bench, passers-by gave him a hot drink, two chocolate bars and a lighter - without him ever asking for anything.
The Guardian reports the original street art did not include the red noses, as shown above, which appeared the Monday after Banksy’s posting. The new mural is now being protected from further vandalism.
From the CityLab archives: Why Banksy Is (Probably) A Woman
What We’re Reading
Inside Pete Buttigieg’s years-long, and often clumsy, quest to understand the black experience (Washington Post)
Detroit, the blackest city in the U.S., is facing an environmental justice nightmare (OneZero)
After a public housing fire, a lack of federal funding comes to light (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
How bike sharing became this decade’s biggest transportation success story (Curbed)
New York City suburbs lure millennials with luxury digs, ax-throwing bars (Bloomberg)
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