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Anaheim City Councilwoman Natalie Meeks wants her colleagues in Anaheim to bolster city laws against homeless encampments – potentially joining a host of OC cities tightening anti-camping laws in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling this past summer.
“I’d like to work with staff and (the police department) to review what other cities have enacted and are considering after the Grants Pass decision recently and bring back for consideration an ordinance tailored to address Anaheim’s needs,” she said at the Sept. 10 council meeting.
Meeks also called on the city’s homeless task force to identify barriers to enforcing current anti-camping laws.
Her calls come after the Supreme Court overturned a case that required cities to offer shelter to homeless people before they were allowed to clear them off the streets.
Since then, cities like Newport Beach, San Clemente and Aliso Viejo have revamped their anti-camping laws, while officials in Garden Grove directed staff to bring back an ordinance prohibiting camping on public property.
The changes come amid complaints from business owners and residents calling for leaders to take action against homeless breaking local laws and as local officials across OC struggle to address homelessness.
Meanwhile, advocates warn efforts to clear our encampments could lead to the criminalization of people sleeping on the streets – something they say will worsen the crisis.
David Duran, a founding member of the People’s Homeless Task Force Orange County, said criminalizing homelessness will jam up the jails and the court system, but will do nothing to stop more people from becoming homeless amid high housing costs.
“It’s a horrible dirty bandage that’s being placed on a social issue of poverty,” Duran said in a phone interview last week.
Westminster Officials Provide Direction to Staff in Secret
Anaheim is not the only city considering cracking down on homeless encampments.
Earlier this month officials in Westminster held a discussion behind closed doors on the Supreme Court decision and were also scheduled to discuss the ruling during the part of the meeting open to the public.
But the public discussion there ended up being scrapped by the council majority who said they already discussed and gave direction to staff about the ruling at the closed door meeting and are choosing not to proceed with a public update to protect the city from litigation.
Councilmembers Amy Phan West and NamQuan Nguyen argued with the council majority to allow attorneys to present an update on the Supreme Court ruling and be transparent with residents.
But Councilwoman Kimberly Ho said West chose not to attend the closed session portion of the meeting.
West publicly accused the city council of violating the state’s chief open meeting law by not properly disclosing the closed door meeting on the Supreme Court ruling.
What Changes Have Been Made?
While Westminster officials are providing direction on the Supreme Court ruling out of public view, other officials are doing so in the open.
In Newport Beach, officials voted in August to amend their law to include greater prohibitions on sleeping in public places and blocking public right of ways.
[Read: Newport Beach Officials Bolster Anti-Camping Law After Supreme Court Ruling]
This includes prohibiting setting up tents on public property, leaving personal property unattended at certain public spaces and outlawing sleeping on public benches or bike racks.
It also prohibits people from staying overnight or sleeping at a public plaza between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day, along with blocking access to ATMs, electric vehicle charging stations, parking pay stations or meters and public trails.
Beyond that, Newport officials have opted not to renew their contract for Be Well OC’s mobile response team – a crew of social workers who respond to mental health and homeless calls instead of cops in a number of cities across the county.
Council members in both Anaheim and Newport Beach have publicly questioned the effectiveness of Be Well’s street team response.
County of Orange officials recently backed out of a contract with Be Well after an audit found systemic failures in their program.
[Read: Orange County Drops Contract with Flagship Mental Health Nonprofit After Failed Audit]
In Aliso Viejo, officials removed the requirement to have shelter beds available before being able to cite or arrest homeless people for illegally sleeping or camping on public property.
Homelessness in Anaheim
Officials in Anaheim have long struggled with how to best deal with homeless camps – especially after the 2018 evictions of encampments on the Santa Ana Riverbed, which saw small homeless camps spring up in parks and railroad tracks shortly after.
[Read: Anaheim Clears Homeless Camp at Maxwell Park, Offers People Shelter Beds]
Since then, the city’s funded and helped build some homeless shelters, but officials have struggled with some houseless residents they call “service resistant.”
The anti-camping request by Councilwoman Meeks came after officials directed staff to come back with an ordinance that would require developers to build affordable homes in certain residential projects or pay the city a fee to boost their housing stock for low income residents.
[Read: How Will Anaheim Build More Affordable Homes?]
It also came after officials debated whether or not they should involve themselves in enforcing state rent caps and tenant protection laws as some residents facing evictions call on officials for help and others called on local leaders to enact a citywide rent control law.
According to the latest homeless count on OC, there are 1,417 homeless people in Anaheim and 601 of them are unsheltered.
This year, the Orange County Sheriff’s department released a report that showed 97 people died living on the streets of Anaheim in 2022 – the most deaths in homeless people out of any of 34 cities in OC.
The deaths in Anaheim account for close to 20% of the 496 homeless deaths in OC in 2022.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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