Bed rolls and sleeping bags have been added to the list of items that define an illegal campsite in Santa Monica. In yet another multi-hour debate, various councilmembers said the decision is both cruel and compassionate, minor and major, common sense and political posturing depending on your point of view.
The actual changes to city code are in fact relatively small. Sleeping bags and bedrolls (pads to sleep on) are now listed as evidence of a campsite in the city’s anti-camping ordinance. Neither item is prohibited outright nor can either item be cause for citation alone but both are now part of the decision matrix used by officials when determining if someone has set up an illegal campsite inside city limits.
Both items were part of the code before being removed two years ago to comply with a regional court decision. That case was recently overturned by the Supreme Court and councilmembers asked staff to evaluate the city’s options given the new legal landscape. Staff said the Council could approve a return to the old rules, do nothing or study decisions by other municipalities. Ultimately, a divided council voted to both revert the local rules back to include the bag/bedroll as evidence of a camp while also studying other decisions by nearby cities.
Santa Monica’s police chief and City Attorney’s office supported the change.
Police Chief Ramon Batista said it would provide officers more tools to address resident concerns and more opportunities to have homeless campers begin to interact with city services.
"I think the distinction is, when our residents call us in situations where somebody is near their home, in a situation where they're experiencing homelessness and have maybe nowhere else to go, then lowering the threshold and removing that barrier makes it so that the officer has more of an opportunity to have that engagement directly with that person," he said. "There are times when we get a 911 call of the same type of report, but on our approach, we see that there we don't really have an opening of how to begin the conversation, because the person is really in that situation, not breaking any laws. And so I think that having the restriction removed gives the officers just one more opportunity to start that engagement and have that conversation, whereas if it's not there, then the officer may look at it and say, you know, actually, this person, while unsightly, is not breaking the law. Which happens."
Jenna Grigsby, Chief of the Criminal Division of the Santa Monica City Attorney's Office, said Santa Monica’s approach to camping is about more than the specific items listed and is a balanced system that enables officers actions to withstand scrutiny in court.
"So I know we're here to focus on those three items that we removed, but really the way that the statute was written 30 years ago is very helpful, and it's very effective, because it gives the officers just enough discretion to be able to articulate the circumstances, but is specific enough so that when we craft jury instructions, the jury is looking for those, at least one of those particular items," she said.
Voting to reinstate the language were Mayor Phil Brock, Vice Mayor Lana Negrete, Councilman Oscar de la Torre and Councilwoman Christine Parra.
After reading a list of recent headlines involving homeless suspects assaulting people, de la Torre said the city was being overrun and that more enforcement of anti-camping laws would force people into services where they could receive help. He said Council should act to protect public space, especially in a city with so many renters.
"These are people that don't have, like myself, I grew up all my life not having a front yard, not having a backyard. You need the public parks. You need the beaches to be safe. You need to protect that, you know, for the sanctity of having, the public's space protected. That responsibility that we have as government, right?"
Brock said allowing people to live on the streets was a failure by the city both to people camping who degrade outside and residents who are impacted in their own right.
"I look at our residents who are calling me, emailing me when I go in person to see people, they're frustrated as hell because there are people in their alleys, on their streets and and for whatever reason, whether you could say it's unjustified or not, they're fearful of their own city," he said. "They're fearful of a place where they came because we had the best climate for them. We had palm trees and a beautiful ocean and great parks, and now they're afraid to use them. I think we have to have that part of the discussion too. It doesn't have to be tonight, but that part of the discussion has to be had. How do we have compassion for our residents? How do we have compassion for the small businesses in our city who are afraid to open their damn doors, who have to put buzzers in, who have to have security guards at the entrance of restaurants. This is unprecedented."
Negrete said more tents and camps will appear without the revision. She said stronger anti-camping laws are one of the few tools available to they city and that the city shouldn’t developing policy that makes it easier for people to live outside.
"We don't want to create an environment where people can create the ability to sleep outside. Why would we want to promote that you should make it as comfortable as possible to be unhoused? No, we have services and service providers, and we need more, for sure, but why not create an environment where we say we want to be able to engage and encourage you to get those services …"
Councilwoman Gleam Davis took issue with the idea that the city should make it uncomfortable for homeless people in the city.
"You said, the idea is to make it as uncomfortable as possible so that they won't be here. The homeless folks won't want to be here. And to me, that's really troubling, not that we want to encourage homeless folks to come here, not that we want to encourage bad behavior. We certainly don't want to encourage illegal behavior, but the fact of the matter is that if we are going to have people experiencing homelessness in our community, I do want to have genuine compassion, not sort of faux compassion by saying, Well, we're very compassionate. We don't arrest people, but really we're trying to make them uncomfortable," she said.
Councilmembers Jesse Zwick and Caroline Torosis joined Davis in opposing the measure saying the city should focus on building housing instead of penalizing people who are homeless.
"Fines, citations and other negative interactions with law enforcement decrease the likelihood that an individual will engage positively with outreach teams offering services in the future," said Torosis.
