{"id":1943,"date":"2015-05-07T19:27:02","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T19:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/?p=1943"},"modified":"2015-05-07T19:27:02","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T19:27:02","slug":"right2rest-legislation-update-and-2015-r-i-p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/huffsantacruz.org\/wordpress\/right2rest-legislation-update-and-2015-r-i-p\/","title":{"rendered":"Right2Rest Legislation Update and 2015 R.I.P."},"content":{"rendered":"
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NOTES BY NORSE;\u00a0 The Right2Rest Law has been laid to rest (for this year at least).\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps pressing for action in a particular city would be a good focus for unhoused activists all over the state, instead encouraging the massed wealthy power all the bigoted city governments to shower legislators with lobbyists.<\/p>\n

Contact Councilmember Micah (poo on “poopoo”) Posner, the man whose credo has been “one portapotty-but-let’s-not-disturb-the-staff-by-pressing-to-get-the-already-existing-bathrooms-open-at-night”.\u00a0 He has scheduled an 11 AM<\/span><\/span> meeting on Friday<\/span><\/span> if anyone wants to come.\u00a0 But you have to call him at 420-5028 beforehand to schedule it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in Santa Cruz, crackdowns continue–individually and institutionally.\u00a0 The Red Church (Calvary Episcopal) has not only withdrawn its lawns from 2-hours-a-week sanctuary to 0-hours-a-week as Pastor Joel Miller, reportedly under pressure from “there goes the neighborhood!” neighbors as well as ecclesiastical superior, called in the police night before last to remove “criminal sleepers” on the property.\u00a0 Cops and security thugs steadily ignore the right to use public sidewalks around Cafe Pergolesi by giving “obstructing the sidewalk” tickets to at least two people who asked why they didn’t have the right to stand non-obstructively on the sidewalk.\u00a0\u00a0 Standing while homeless is apparently the crime involved.\u00a0 Or questioning the inflated authority of guys in uniforms with badges and guns, perhaps.<\/p>\n

Has the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center [HLOSC] okayed the collusion between Harvey West Businesses, the SCPD, and the Public Works Department to create the first-in-Santa-Cruz “no parking at any time without a permit” zone up and down Coral, Fern, and Limekiln streets?\u00a0\u00a0 Call them up at 420-5020 and ask them.\u00a0 I can’t get through.\u00a0\u00a0 Or perhaps shoot an e-mail to longtime HLOSC-backer (and Mayor) Don Lane at dlane@cityofsantacruz.com<\/a>\u00a0 or 831-420-5022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We’ll be out there gathering signatures, complaints, and concerns today at 2:30 pm<\/span><\/span> at 115 Coral St. (See “Fighting the Homeless Parking Ban–Day 2<\/strong>” at https:\/\/www.indybay.org\/newsitems\/2015\/05\/07\/18772010.php<\/a> ).\u00a0 Hot coffee and heated discussions.\u00a0 Join us, or contact HUFF at 423-4833 and\/or rnorse3@hotmail.com<\/a> to be alerted for future protests.<\/p>\n

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Right To Rest Legislation Held Over in State Senate<\/a><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
Proponents of the Right to Rest bill \u2014 including a busload of advocates of homeless people from San Francisco and Oakland \u2014 turned out in great numbers. Supporters outnumbered opposition lobbyists from business alliances and city governments by 6 to 1 during legislative hearings in Sacramento.<\/div>\n
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by TJ Johnston<\/h3>\n

The Right to Rest Act, California Senate Bill 608, which would decriminalize sleep, rest, the sharing of food and prayer, was pulled from committee without a vote. But the struggle for the bill in California will continue next year.<\/p>\n

For now, SB 608 has been delayed after State Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Ca\u00f1ada-Flintridge) asked the Transportation and Housing Committee to hold off a vote on April 7 when it appeared there weren\u2019t enough votes to advance the legislation.
\n\u201cToday wasn\u2019t a defeat,\u201d said Paul Boden, director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, one of the homeless advocacy organizations sponsoring the bill. \u201cIt was step one in a long process.\u201d<\/p>\n

SB 608, known as the Right to Rest Act, will still be active next year, he said. The state legislature still has up to two years to act on proposed legislation.<\/p>\n

If passed by both the Senate and Assembly, the bill would ensure all Californians \u2014 regardless of housing status \u2014 the rights to rest, move freely in public, share food, pray, and sleep in a legally parked vehicle.<\/p>\n

In effect, it would make local sit-lie and anti-panhandling ordinances that cities use against their homeless residents unenforceable throughout the state.<\/p>\n

At the hearing, proponents of the bill \u2014 including a busload of advocates of homeless people from San Francisco and Oakland \u2014 turned out in great numbers. Supporters outnumbered opposition lobbyists from business alliances and city governments 6 to 1 during public comment.<\/p>\n

Their refrain throughout the session was \u201cstop criminalizing homelessness.\u201d Several wore T-shirts with the words \u201cHomeless Bill of Rights\u201d and an image of a dove and a pair of hands breaking chains. This popular design comes from an image drawn by Ronnie Goodman, a homeless artist who has regularly lent his work to homeless people\u2019s struggles.
\nAngel McClain, whom Liu invited before the panel, spoke in defense of SB 608. Now a senior advocate at St. Mary\u2019s Center in Oakland, she spent 15 years on the streets, staying in tents, abandoned houses and by freeways \u2014 essentially, any place where she could find refuge.<\/p>\n

She said that police officers targeted her for arrest simply because of her homeless status. \u201cI was arrested for little or no reason because I was known as a homeless person,\u201d she told the panel. \u201cMy cousin told me the police had a schedule to pick me up and put me back in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

McClain also suffered dehumanizing treatment from the police. \u201cI was treated like dirt, no consideration, like a piece of garbage that you discard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Opposition to the Right to Rest bill came mainly from the League of California Cities, which argued that the bill would exempt homeless people from so-called \u201cquality of life\u201d laws that in theory apply to all people, but in fact are used almost exclusively against homeless people. The statewide association wrote a letter to Liu that the bill wouldn\u2019t create or expand housing and social services.<\/p>\n

But Boden said that is not the focus of the bill. It\u2019s meant to remove legal barriers homeless people face because they have been arrested for the necessary acts of resting, sitting or lying in public.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about ending homelessness, just decriminalizing it,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone sleeps, eats and sits, but only some get tickets or go to jail for it. Criminalization only makes things worse for people living on the streets. And by not having to enforce crimes of status, law enforcement can focus on real public safety issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, senators on the committee and opponents of the bill said SB 608 would remove a tool from police in enforcing local ordinances (see sidebar).<\/p>\n

Appearing before the panel, Matt Gray, a lobbyist for Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety and the California Small Business Association, painted a worst-case scenario of what would happen to communities if the bill passes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe answer is simply not to allow the rest of California to be like San Francisco,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Recently, the city of San Francisco was also used as a model of homeless criminalization in a report from the University of California at Berkeley law school. Of the 58 cities with anti-homeless ordinances it studied, San Francisco tied Los Angeles to lead all others in their overwhelming number of anti-homeless laws \u2014 23 in San Francisco. Homeless people were given about 23,000 citations in a seven-year span for such nonviolent, poverty-related offenses as sitting, resting, camping and panhandling.<\/p>\n

In the last five years, San Francisco further restricted homeless people\u2019s activities with prohibitions on sitting and lying on sidewalks at certain times, staying in public parks overnight, and parking large vehicles on most city streets overnight.
\nBerkeley \u2014 which has 10 anti-homeless ordinances of its own \u2014 is considering adding many more, including setting one\u2019s belonging by a tree, lying on planter walls, and panhandling within 10 feet of parking pay station.<\/p>\n

On March 17<\/span><\/span>, the City Council forwarded these recommendations to the City Manager for recommendation.<\/div>\n

\n\"Homeless<\/a>Homeless advocates demonstrate in Sacramento for the Right to Rest Bill which would end the enforcement of many anti-homeless laws. Janny Castillo photo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Osha Neumann, an attorney with the East Bay Community Law Center, said the proposal would make Berkeley\u2019s tree-lined and metered streets off limits to homeless people if it is enacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaken together with existing laws, these ordinances would essentially make it illegal for people who are homeless to have a presence on our streets and sidewalks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Right to Rest bills are moving through legislatures in Oregon and Colorado.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, a more expansive version of the legislation called the Homeless Bill of Rights passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee, but died when the Appropriations Committee declined to bring it up for a vote.<\/p>\n

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You Can\u2019t Make This Stuff Up<\/h1>\n

Stupid Things California Lawmakers Say About Homelessness<\/h2>\n

by TJ Johnston<\/h3>\n

If there was any doubt that SB 608, the Right to Rest Act, would face any roadblocks in the legislative process, they were surely dispelled when State Sen. Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton) weighed in. Before Galgiani\u2019s remarks, a few of the California state senators on the Transportation and Housing committee had already voiced reservations that would lead to a prospective \u201cNo\u201d if SB 608 author Carol Liu asked for a vote on the bill on April 7.<\/p>\n

Some were concerned about provisions in the bill such as a $1,000 fine to communities upon violation of the act. Others wanted clarifications on how the bill would affect those sleeping on public versus private property. (Liu said it would not apply to private property.)<\/p>\n

But Galgiani\u2019s rambling explanation of why she wouldn\u2019t support the bill left some incredulous. While asserting that uneven application of anti-homeless ordinances aren\u2019t a problem in her district, she said cops still need them for other reasons \u2014 such as thwarting gang warfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou and I and law enforcement cannot tell who is homeless from someone who belongs to a gang,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I dress down, I can blend in as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then recounted a recent incident that happened in her district.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis last month,\u201d she said, \u201cwe\u2019ve had a drive-by shooting at a market just blocks away from where I used to live a few years ago, where three people were killed. Now it\u2019s a known place where people loiter. How do you define \u2018loiter?\u2019 You can\u2019t define it just by looking at someone or seeing that someone is spending time at a place for too long. That\u2019s why we must rely on law enforcement for the judgments on behavior taking place. Law enforcement needs that tool to address the behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Galgiani failed to mention is that the U.S. Supreme Court found anti-loitering laws to be unconstitutional in 1999 primarily because of their vagueness.<\/p>\n

Galgiani also related another recent tale of an altercation among three motorcycle gangs near a strip club where gunfire was exchanged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the problems in my district,\u201d she said. \u201cLaw enforcement in my district, they\u2019re not bothering people who are homeless. I respect that is occurring throughout the state.\u201d She added that the state should \u201cdo a broad blanket for everyone to abide by\u201d if SB 608 becomes law.<\/p>\n

Another addition for the file under \u201cyou can\u2019t make this up\u201d came from Matt Gray, who lobbied against the bill on behalf of two business organizations.<\/p>\n

While he encouraged creating affordable housing and improving social and health services \u2014 at the same time, referring to homeless people as \u201ctransients, homeless or whatever you want to call them\u201d \u2014 he ultimately said the overarching solution wasn\u2019t \u201callowing the rest of California to be like San Francisco.\u201d No city in California has more anti-homeless laws than San Francisco.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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