SOCIAL JUSTICE BLOG
Read and share extraordinary stories from the frontlines of social change
Impact Fund Sets New Grantmaking Record In Support Of Communities Seeking Justice
In our summer grantmaking cycle, we granted $203,650 to support nine impact cases brought by communities confronting injustice. This is the highest amount we have ever granted in one quarter, and an exciting end to our largest grantmaking year so far, with a total of $690,150 granted to support 27 communities across the U.S. and Canada seeking their day in court.
Our new grantees this quarter are doing amazing work on behalf of LGBTQ+ students, immigrants, Indigenous people, people with disabilities, unhoused people, and incarcerated people. We are so grateful that we can help support these important cases. Here are the inspiring stories behind them.
Class Action Challenges San Diego's Criminalization of Homelessness
A lot is at stake in this case. Punitive approaches to sheltering in vehicles are reflective of the larger, nationwide policy shift toward criminalizing visible poverty in a harmful, expensive, and futile effort to police our way out of the growing homelessness crisis. When inherently innocent survival conduct, like sheltering, is treated as a punishable offense, the rights and freedoms of all human beings are threatened. It is critical to fight for protection of our freedoms in the courts.
Victory for Unhoused People in Ocala, Florida - Court Rules City Ordinance Unconstitutional
After Patrick McArdle’s eighth arrest in early 2019 for sleeping on public property in Ocala, Florida, he could no longer accept the injustice of being arrested merely because he was unhoused. When he was unable to make bond, he decided to spend his time in jail in the library, researching constitutional caselaw about sleeping ordinances. When he stumbled upon Martin v. Boise, he felt vindicated — he was now sure the City’s efforts to arrest and incarcerate unhoused residents in Ocala for sleeping outside were, like Boise’s, in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.