Beaumont, Eastvale Adopt Ordinances Prohibiting Camping

Beaumont and Eastvale this month became the latest cities in Riverside County to adopt ordinances prohibiting camping.

“I support the necessity of the ordinance, because overall, our number one [priority] is protecting the health and safety of our public,” Beaumont Councilmember Julio Martinez III said of the city’s urgency ordinance at the Sept. 3 meeting. “So a lot of the ability now to authorize cleanup and prohibit camping on public and private property without prior authorization and permission is going to help, I think, overall with some of the problems we’ve had in the past.”

The cities join Hemet, Indio, Palm Springs and Jurupa Valley in adopting new policies following the Supreme Court’s decision in the Grants Pass case. The decision removed the requirement that in order to criminally enforce a prohibition on camping on public property, a city would first need to have an adequate number of shelter beds for people to go to.

“Once Grants Pass was overturned, [Gov. Gavin] Newsom’s office issued an executive order to all state agencies to start clearing encampments from state property,” Beaumont Police Chief Sean Thuilliez said. “Also with that was his belief that if cities weren’t doing enough with the homeless, that grant money would not be available, and so with that, we immediately saw a movement on the state staff side with clearing encampments in other larger cities, and we noticed that those encampments were being taken down.”

He said the actions of other cities coupled with cooler weather, he believed there would be an influx of unhoused people moving through the San Gorgonio Pass region, some of whom would settle in the Banning and Beaumont areas and others who would continue through to the Coachella Valley.

“We’re not just singling out homeless people, but we’ve had flooding, we’ve had other fires, you know,” Thuilliez said. “You know, there’s a lot of threats that come with these encampments, beyond just somebody being unhoused.”

Thuilliez said the department does all that it can to help people get off the streets, whether that’s getting them into the care of family members or connecting them with treatment for mental health and addiction issues.

“There’s a lot of resources that the city puts into it, and it is with a compassion-first [approach],” he said. “We’re not trying to arrest a way out of a societal issue, we’re trying to connect them to solve it long term really. It’s just, it’s a tough situation to fix.”

A little over a week later, Eastvale approved the first reading of its ordinance prohibiting camping. 

“I was happy to see this starting to trickle down statewide after the Grants Pass [decision],” Eastvale Mayor Christian Dinco said. “I’ve spent a lot of time walking through the homeless encampments over the years.”

And while Dinco said it can be sad to know people are living in such conditions, he said he’s also dealt a lot with businesses and residents who are also impacted by the conditions of encampments.

Councilmember Todd Rigby, who highlighted the resources available to people experiencing homelessness, also called on people to give their time and money to organizations that provide resources and support for the community’s unhoused population.

“When we give the dollar, $5, even when we give the meals to them on the streets, we’re really just helping and aiding what they’re doing,” he said. “There are opportunities that you can donate, that you can give meals, that you can volunteer at these nonprofits that truly, truly help these people.”

Eastvale’s ordinance is set for final approval at Wednesday’s meeting.