A proposed invoice within the California Legislature barring cities and counties from fining or arresting a homeless particular person for sleeping or tenting on the road is ready to be heard by a legislative committee later this month.
The invoice is partly in response to a U.S. Supreme Courtroom ruling final yr that allowed native jurisdictions to ban homeless encampments, even when a metropolis or county doesn’t have sufficient shelter beds.
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Beneath the proposed Proper to Relaxation Act, native governments would nonetheless be allowed to clear encampments; they simply wouldn’t be permitted to fantastic or arrest an individual merely for residing on the streets — penalties Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez stated would solely make it tougher for somebody to raise themselves out of homelessness.
California state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (Courtesy picture)
Her proposed laws, SB 634, would prohibit a state company or native jurisdiction from imposing civil or prison penalties on a homeless particular person for “any act immediately related to homelessness,” or on anybody serving to a homeless particular person “with any act related to basic survival,” together with handing out water or meals or providing different providers.
Pérez, D-Pasadena, stated folks shouldn’t be criminalized for not with the ability to afford a roof over their heads.
“What we’re trying to get at here is prevent people from getting fined or being put in jail for being homeless,” stated Pérez, including that folks shouldn’t be criminalized for the organic have to sleep.
“If you cannot afford to live anywhere — if you can’t afford housing, a hotel — you still need to sleep,” she stated.
Pérez stated fining or arresting somebody for being homeless doesn’t work as a result of if the particular person can’t afford to pay the fantastic and accrues further charges consequently, it might shortly spin uncontrolled, leaving the particular person additional in debt.
Moreover, she stated, arresting an individual might lead to them lacking an appointment with a service supplier to use for housing or different providers.
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Fines and arrests are “not only not a solution,” however they exacerbate the homeless disaster, she stated.
Greater than 300,000 folks cycled via homelessness in California in 2024, but the state solely had 76,000 shelter beds and 79,000 items of everlasting supportive housing, in keeping with the invoice.
Interior Metropolis Regulation Middle, a authorized providers supplier in L.A.’s Skid Row that serves folks experiencing homelessness, is a sponsor of the invoice.
Representatives for the group stated Monday that when a homeless particular person is fined, the unpaid fantastic can keep on their document, making it tougher to use for an condominium and may deepen the cycle of poverty.
The main focus, they stated, needs to be on constructing reasonably priced housing and offering extra providers to these in want — not creating further challenges for poor folks or those that assist them. (Provisions within the invoice defending individuals who assist the homeless had been added, they stated, in response to the Fremont Metropolis Council’s current determination to make it a misdemeanor to “aid” and “abet” somebody erecting a homeless encampment.)
“We’re here to fight poverty, not people who are poor,” stated Interior Metropolis Regulation Middle fellow Ishvaku Vashishtha.
However, he stated, “after Grants Pass, we saw the flood gates open to allow municipalities to experiment with various ways of criminalizing poverty.”
When the Supreme Courtroom rendered its determination on the Grants Cross case final summer season and gave native jurisdictions permission to implement anti-camping legal guidelines and ticket folks for sleeping in public, it drew combined opinions from officers in Southern California.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsay Horvath, who chaired the Board of Supervisors on the time, condemned the choice, saying it criminalizes homelessness. Neither the town nor the county would punish folks for tenting in public, they stated.
Then again, leaders from a number of Orange County cities praised the courtroom ruling.
Newport Seaside officers lately referred to as the Grants Cross determination “the single biggest game-changer for the city when it comes to dealing with the homeless.”
Two years in the past, Mayor Joe Stapleton stated Newport Seaside had 94 homeless folks; that quantity is now all the way down to 11.
“There’s no compassion for leaving these people on the streets,” Stapleton stated, including that the town is spending over $4 million a yr for sources, instruments, providers, short-term housing and everlasting housing options to get folks off the streets.
There might have been resistance to Newport Seaside’s anti-camping legislation at first, Stapleton stated, however the metropolis has since heard from a number of folks thanking it for forcing them to get the providers they wanted to get off the streets.
On the time of the Grants Cross ruling, the town of San Bernardino was nonetheless in litigation over allegedly throwing out homeless residents’ belongings throughout earlier campsite clearings.
However in September, the town and the ACLU Basis of Southern California agreed to a settlement requiring the town to undertake a coverage to stop the destruction of homeless residents’ property throughout encampment sweeps and to supply affordable lodging for homeless residents with disabilities.
Nearly instantly thereafter, San Bernardino started clearing campsites from its parks, beginning with Perris Hill Park, to combined outcomes, in keeping with former residents of these camps.
San Bernardino has additionally allotted one other $1.4 million to deal with homeless residents, with extra spending doubtlessly on its approach.
Pérez, who served on the Alhambra Metropolis Council earlier than being elected to the state legislature, stated Alhambra doesn’t fantastic or arrest folks for being homeless however provides shelter and providers.
The difficulty is deeply private to Pérez, whose cousin died whereas residing on the streets in Nevada in 2019. Her aunt, who was additionally homeless and confined to a wheelchair towards the top of her life, died the next yr. And Pérez has different members of the family nonetheless residing on the streets.
“There are solutions that local municipalities can do that really center on services, on housing without having to go to these extreme measures” of fines and arrests, Pérez stated.
Her invoice is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Native Authorities Committee on Wednesday, April 23. Southern California legislators who sit on that committee embody Sens. María Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles; Steve Choi, R-Irvine; and Kelly Seyarto, R-Murrieta.
