A new U.S. Supreme Court ruling is clearing the way for cities to enforce anti-camping laws — a move that has Orange County cities rethinking their homelessness response.
In Santa Ana, Mayor Valerie Amezcua said U.S. District Judge David Carter gave the city “his blessing” on homelessness enforcement after a recent meeting.
“The last time I met Judge Carter he said, ‘Mayor Amezcua, your city has done enough. It’s time for enforcement,’” she said at the council’s July 16 meeting. “Those were his exact words. It is time for enforcement. So guess what, Judge Carter gave us his blessing. I welcome it.”
[Read: Is Orange County About To Enforce Anti-Camping Laws Again?]
She emphasized a need to focus on bus stops and prevent homeless people from using illegal drugs and sleeping where people should be able to wait for the bus.
“They should not be passed out, drugged out, half naked on our bus stops because people need to use the bus and they need to sit there,” Amezcua said.
“I would love to help people more, but we don’t have the ability to carry every single person on our back in the city of Santa Ana.”
Supreme Court Justices’ ruling in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case last month reverses the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal ruling in Martin v. Boise, which mandated that cities must provide adequate shelter beds before they can push homeless people off the streets.
To read the opinions in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case, click here.
Additionally, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Thursday ordering state agencies to adopt clear policies that urgently address homeless encampments.
[Read: Gov. Newsom Calls on Local Leaders to Clean Up Encampments – Will They?]
Santa Ana has two homeless shelters and a Quality of Life Team that addresses homelessness issues including encampments, abandoned property and mental health services.
At the July 16 meeting, Councilmember Benjamin Vasquez called to increase the Quality of Life Team and supported county Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento’s homelessness prevention program.
That plan aims to help stop people from getting evicted or pushed into homelessness by giving them extra cash — split up between 200 households. The money is meant to be used for late rent and utility bills along with other needs like purchasing groceries.
[Read: Orange County Approves $3 Million Homeless Prevention Pilot Program]
In a follow-up phone interview, Vasquez called out some of his city council colleagues for supporting policies that criminalize homelessness, some of which were driven by crackdowns on public intoxication.
“We need to expand on how we deal with unhoused people to a more holistic approach that works in Santa Ana,” he said, adding that jailing homeless people for openly drinking or sleeping doesn’t address long-term concerns in the city.
Councilmember David Penaloza emphasized the city’s homelessness issue isn’t because of rent prices or a lack of local resources — he said it’s criminals using illegal drugs who are refusing assistance.
“They’re drug addicts that got sent here from out of state to rehab facilities along the coast, then their insurance companies pushed them out because they ran out of money and now they’re living on our streets terrorizing our residents,” Penaloza said at the July 16 meeting.
“We’ve got to get a handle on this,” he said. “We need to continue enforcing public intoxication. We need to aggressively enforce encampment on public properties. Our residents are asking for that.”
In 2021, the city cleared a high-profile homeless camp at the El Centro community center, a months-long saga to clean up the sized encampment.
At the time, city officials obtained a court order — known as an abatement warrant — that allowed them to clear out the encampment.
In 2018, county officials began evicting the Santa Ana Riverbed homeless encampment, where hundreds of people lived, until a federal lawsuit was filed and Judge Carter blocked the evictions.
Afterward, Carter toured the riverbed encampment and mandated a host of protections for homeless people — like providing motel rooms while county and city officials scrambled to build homeless shelters.
[Read: Lawsuit Seeks End to Santa Ana Riverbed Homeless Evictions; County Says It Won’t Stop]
At the July 16 meeting, Councilmember Phil Bacerra said some people are using homelessness as an “excuse for criminality.”
“When our community calls the cops, they’re not calling the cops because they don’t like the fact that somebody doesn’t has a home,” Bacerra said. “They don’t like the fact that maybe they’re passed out, wasted, in violation of public intoxication laws.”
The city council meets next on Aug. 6.
Interested residents can email the city clerk any comments they want council members to consider.
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
Hugo Rios is a Voice of OC reporting fellow. Contact him at hugo.toni.rios@gmail.com or on Twitter @hugoriosss.
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