Missouri’s new law making homeless encampments on state-owned land illegal is facing another legal challenge, this one filed Tuesday by housing advocates.
Three Missourians, represented by Legal Services of Eastern Missouri and Public Citizen Litigation Group, are asking a judge to block House Bill 1606. The law, passed by state legislators this year and signed into law by the governor, allows the attorney general to sue local governments that don’t enforce the ban and aims to redirect money toward specific camping areas for the homeless.
The new lawsuit alleges that the law violates Missouri’s constitutional requirements that legislation pertains only to one subject, is accurately titled and that amendments do not change the legislation’s original purpose. Adina H. Rosenbaum, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group, said in a statement the General Assembly was “hiding provisions on homelessness in a bill that, as a whole, addresses a different subject.”
