Last week, we told you about another Supreme Court ruling allowing bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors.

The ruling clears the way for the Safer Kentucky Act, which among other things, makes unlawful camping and public spaces a crime.

Over the weekend, some groups advocating for Kentucky's homeless population marched in Washington, D.C.

They joined the Poor People's Campaign, calling for fair wages.

George Allen is with Louisville's Coalition for the Homeless.

He says research suggests criminalizing homelessness is not the answer.

First is a proven approach.

Housing First works for me.

It works for you.

It works for everyone because everybody needs a place to call home that foundation stone to come and build your life upon.

It's where you get ready for work.

It's where you get ready for school.

And when we put clients in housing first approaches here in Louisville, we see a 97% success rate of keeping them housed consistently for more than two years.

And so we see great promise in it.

You know, it's important to note that when we put people in housing, it doesn't just mean we're putting people there and leaving them there on their own.

It comes with case management, it comes with supports, it comes with levels of accountability, the same as anybody who's renting on the private market.

What we need here in Kentucky and across the country, like first and foremost, we need more rental housing for those that are earning very low wages.

Right now, everyone knows everyone feels that that rent is too high.

We see rent prices going up.

We see housing costs going up.

And at different segments of our housing continuum, we see the market freezing.

And those that are earning the least are the ones that are going to lose that game of musical chairs trying to find a place that they can afford and a place that they can call home.

What we need to do in Kentucky is increase the number of units to try and close the gap that Kentucky sees at those very low income, affordable units for people.

But we also need to expand shelter and we need to increase resources so that people have the option to go in.

Right now in Louisville, we have 1600 people that are homeless each night.

We only have roughly 850 shelter beds that we can put people in.

So by default, we have five, six, 700 people that are always going to be homeless because they don't have anywhere to go right now.

Rent is too high and the shelters are full every day.

The Safer Kentucky Act, that law will go into effect two weeks from today.