{"id":1227,"date":"2013-08-02T22:41:41","date_gmt":"2013-08-02T22:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/?p=1227"},"modified":"2013-08-08T22:46:42","modified_gmt":"2013-08-08T22:46:42","slug":"huff-opposes-passage-of-palo-altos-living-in-vehicles-ordinance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/huff-opposes-passage-of-palo-altos-living-in-vehicles-ordinance\/","title":{"rendered":"HUFF opposes passage of Palo Alto’s Living in Vehicles ordinance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

FROM: Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

309 Cedar St. PMB 14B<\/p>\n

Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060<\/p>\n

\n

TO: Palo Alto City\u00a0Council
\n250 Hamilton Avenue
\nPalo Alto, CA<\/p>\n

\n

re: Item # 17 on Action Agenda <\/a>for Aug 5 2013 meeting<\/p>\n

MC 9.06.010 “Living in Vehicles” ordinance proposal<\/p>\n

August 2, 2013<\/p>\n

\n

Dear Mayor Gregory Scharff\u00a0and members of the Palo Alto City Council,<\/p>\n

\n

Our organization, Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom<\/em><\/strong> has met & discussed<\/p>\n

the proposed MC 9.06.010\u00a0“Living in Vehicles” ordinance which will be on your Monday, August 5th<\/p>\n

agenda. Under this ordinance, what constitutes illegal behavior is defined as follows:<\/p>\n

\n

For purposes of this section, \u201chuman habitation\u201d means the use of a <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

vehicle for a<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

dwelling place, including but not limited to, sleeping, eating or resting, either single<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

or in groups…<\/strong><\/em>
\nHUFF finds this to be an overly-broad definition of illegal behavior which could be
\npracticed by nearly every citizen of Palo Alto at some point or other, but is likely to be selectively
\nenforced against poor, houseless, disabled, or people of color.
\nThe only remedy is punishment by fine or jail. In the former, this will only drive an already
\nimpoverished individual into deeper poverty and in the latter will overburden our already
\noverburdened justice system adding to the already record levels of those incarcerated
\nat huge public expense for little value in return. Can you really use your government power
\nof citation, arrest, fines or jail to dissuade people from sleeping, eating, or resting?
\nWhy would you want to?<\/p>\n

Finally, since a housed person who eats, sleeps, or rests in his\/her vehicle is not “dwelling”
\nin their vehicle,\u00a0these activities\u00a0by definition are intended\u00a0to be enforced differently against
\nhomeless people than against housed people who engage in the exact same behavior.
\nThis makes your ordinance unconstitutional on its face.<\/p>\n

For these and other reasons HUFF passed the following resolution:<\/p>\n

HUFF opposes passage of the Living in Vehicles ordinance as overly broad, not providing alternatives, <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

adding to the criminalization of the homeless by\u00a0trying to solve complex economic problems\u00a0with the stroke of the pen.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Passed unanimously on July 31, 2013 by the HUFF membership<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Becky Johnson of HUFF<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Please reply by e-mail to: becky_johnson222@hotmail.com<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

or by telephone at (831) 423 – 4833<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Also posted on Huff Resolutions Page<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FROM: Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom 309 Cedar St. PMB 14B Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060 TO: Palo Alto City\u00a0Council 250 Hamilton Avenue Palo Alto, CA re: Item # 17 on Action Agenda for Aug 5 2013 meeting MC 9.06.010 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,56],"tags":[3,60,14,70],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1229,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions\/1229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}