Court says homeless can sleep in public spaces if cities fail to provide beds.

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It doesn’t matter if they become trash heaps, drug dens or open-air toilets, homeless encampments cannot be removed from public spaces if a city fails or falls behind in providing enough places to sleep for every person out on the streets.

That’s what the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, thereby throwing a big curveball at efforts to stop the proliferation of tents in Seattle and other cities in the Western states.

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