From the ACLU, this is at Liberty. I'm Kendall Seasmeyer, your host. On April 22nd, the Supreme Court

will hear the case of Johnson v. Grant's pass. This will be the most significant court case about the

rights of homeless people in decades.

At its core, Grants Pass will decide whether cities are allowed to punish people for things like

sleeping outside with a pillow or a blanket, even when there are no safe shelter options, posing

potentially great risk to the 250,000 Americans who sleep outside

on any given night. This case comes at a time when the affordable housing market is strapped,

with the deficit of 6.8 million affordable housing units needed nationwide for extremely low-income

families.

What's more, according to a recent Harvard study, one in four renters, or 11.2 million households,

are severely burdened by rents that take up over half of their incomes.

These millions of renters living paycheck to paycheck are at significant risk of losing their home at the turn of a rainy day,

with Americans of color, disabled Americans, and queer and trans Americans at even greater risk.

With so many folks on a razor-thin edge of experiencing housing instability, all eyes are on grants pass. Joining us to talk a little bit

more about the case and the broader systemic issue of housing instability, homelessness, and what it

would take to make a meaningful dent in both is Jennifer Friedenbach, the executive director of the

Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco.

Jennifer, welcome to it Liberty, and thank you so much for joining me.

Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here.

So, Jennifer, I want to start with the case at hand, which is Johnson v. Grant's Pass.

It's going to be argued next week. We'll get a

decision later this year in June. When you heard the case was headed to the Supreme Court,

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