Being homeless doesn’t represent a personal failing or define a personality type. Anyone could fall victim to it under the right circumstances. Guest columnist

Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3, along ideological lines, to allow cities to ban people from sleeping and camping in public spaces outdoors. It overturned lower court rulings that cited the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment ― that is, disproportionate to the crime.

It seems a stretch to deem sleeping in spaces deemed public ― the streets, the parks, the woods, for example ― as criminal. But with an ordinance passed 5-2 last September, the Des Moines City Council, whose members don’t typically run on ideological differences, opted to do just that. Residents can be arrested f

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