For the second time in about a week, the practice of camping by homeless people on public property in the greater Fresno area has been targeted by elected officials for potential criminal penalties.
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the first reading of an ordinance that bans camping and authorizes fines and arrests for violations in unincorporated areas of the county. The city of Fresno introduced a similar ordinance on July 29.
The county law, which will be up for final approval on Aug. 20 and take effect 30 days later, prohibits people from camping:
- On public property that’s not intended to serve as a campsite.
- On private property that’s not otherwise zoned for camping, or without permission of the property owner.
- On areas that would obstruct streets, sidewalks, alleys, trails, driveways by sitting, lying or sleeping or storing personal property.
- On any street, alley, sidewalk or other public property or right of way within 500 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds, child-care facilities or libraries; within 500 feet of railroad tracks or railroad property; within 100 feet of roadway over- or underpasses, freeway off- or on-ramps, tunnels or bridges; within 50 feet of a fire hydrant or designated fire lanes; or within 10 feet of driveways or loading docks.
In addition, the ordinance forbids bathing in public fountains or other public water features, or urinating or defecating on public property.
A violation would be treated as a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to six months in jail or a fine of up to $500, or both. But the law provides that “as an alternative to a fine or jail sentence, the county would encourage (courts) to grant diversion or probation with a condition that the offender complete a rehabilitation program or treatment plan.”
The Board of Supervisors’ 5-0 vote comes eight days after the Fresno City Council adopted its own ordinance that carries fines of up to $1,000 or one year in jail.
Both measures come on the heels of recent developments regarding homeless encampments: a recent Supreme Court decision that civil and criminal penalties for camping in public areas do not represent “cruel and unusual punishment” for homeless individuals under the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; and an executive order issued in late July by California Gov. Gavin Newsom for state agencies to adopt policies to clear homeless encampments on state property and encouraging local city and county agencies to do the same.
Fresno County’s ordinance was proposed by Supervisor Steve Brandau, whose District 2 represents much of northeast and northwest Fresno. It is similar to an anti-camping ordinance that he sponsored and won approval for in 2017 as a member of the Fresno City Council. That measure, however, “was quickly put on a shelf” because of two court rulings — one in Idaho, the other in Oregon, Brandau said Tuesday. The recent Supreme Court decision overturned those two cases.
Brandau said the county ordinance isn’t intended to be a wholesale rousting or harassment of the homeless.
“This isn’t about sweeping people off the street,” he said. “This is about a very small subset of very obstinate people who do things that hurt our businesses. They hurt parents who have to send their children down the street to school, to walk alone down the street.”
“We have to say to them, ‘Wouldn’t you prefer to go down and begin the process, as challenging as it is, to take advantage of some of these (social) services?’” Brandau added.
Enforcing the ordinance, once it takes effect, will fall to the county sheriff’s department. Deputy County Administrative Officer Amina Flores-Becker said sheriff’s deputies already have experience clearing illegal homeless encampments on private property, and praised deputies for “their compassionate approach and their interactions with the unhoused population.”
“I believe that it is because of their approach that we almost always get voluntary compliance with an order to vacate the premises without the need for any punitive action,” Flores-Becker said.
Sheriff John Zanoni said his department enforces court orders to abate encampments on private property between three and five times per year. “So we’re very well versed in the process and what needs to be done and absolutely being compassionate to these individuals,” he said. “And in many cases, we attempt to do our best to get the (social services) resources available out to these encampments so we can give people options.”
The ordinance, he added, will give deputies the authority to do the same on public property. “Right now we don’t have that effective ability to remove these individuals,” Zanoni told the supervisors. “We can tell them to leave and they’ll go down the road to a different location or move along. But is that solving a problem? No, it’s not.”
“We understand that in order to solve this problem, we have to have resources,” the sheriff added. “We have to have things available for individuals: places for them to live, programs for them to check into, and things that will help get them off the streets and help them not be homeless.”
Ordinances and penalties need to be balanced with available housing, services and programs “so that these people have options, because when they have options, I believe many of them will chose a different lifestyle,” Zanoni said. “But without options, it becomes difficult. Where do we put them?”
Homeless advocates including Dez Martinez of We Are Not Invisible complained to supervisors Tuesday that the county lacks enough shelter beds to accommodate all of the people who are unhoused. She added that despite assertions that many homeless people don’t take advantage of services such as mental health or drug-treatment programs, those too are inadequate.
“You say it a lot: ‘We have resources, we have resources,’” she said. “Be specific, please, because you’re being very specific on the amount of time for jail or (how much) you’re going to fine us.”
Zaida Ramos, a policy advocate for Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability, echoed Zanoni’s remarks about the need for additional capacity for homeless shelters and social services.
“The county should show a higher level of urgency and funding efforts to ensure that shelters are adequately funded with sufficient beds and mental health services, as well as affordable housing available to all residents,” Ramos told the board. “Instead of hastily creating an ordinance that will only cause more suffering to the unhoused, you must begin with prioritizing funding for policies and programs that are preventive, restorative and compassionate.”
This story was originally published August 06, 2024 4:56 PM.
