Last month, the Riverside City Council adopted an urgency ordinance to prohibit camping on public property, following the lead of a handful of other Riverside County communities to do so in response to a recent Supreme Court case.
“Recently, on June 28, 2024, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority opinion of the court, and held of the United States Supreme Court, city ordinances which prohibited sleeping or camping on public property did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment when applied to individuals experiencing homelessness, even if homelessness was involuntary,” interim City Attorney Jack Liu said at the Oct. 22 meeting. “Ordinances did not criminalize mere status.”
The ordinance was approved on a 6-1 vote with Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes voting against.
The overwhelming majority of those who spoke during the item did so in opposition to the ordinance, citing its outsized impacts on the city’s most vulnerable population and the inability of the ordinance to address the underlying issues that lead to homelessness, something Cervantes also brought up.
“We want to look the other way, because it’s not pretty,” she said. “It doesn’t make us feel good, but it’s OK that it doesn’t make us feel good, because it’s not right, because we could do more, we should do more, and that is our responsibility as public servants, as individuals and humanity is to look out for each other, to take care of each other.
“This, to me, is not bringing any of that to the table,” she continued. “And, instead, it’s harming people more that are already in a very challenging place, and I recognize there are layers to that.”
Council members Jim Perry, Chuck Condor, Steven Robillard and Sean Mill felt differently, stating that the ordinance was a necessary step for the city to take.
“We’ve put $17 billion towards this, and we’ve seen worse outcomes,” Robillard said. “And so, you know, I do agree with [Perry’s] motion, and will be voting to approve it.”
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In talking about their support for the ordinance, both Perry and Mill spoke about theft and assaults allegedly committed by unhoused individuals, but the ordinance, as proposed and adopted, makes no mention of crime other than the sale and use of illicit drugs.
What the ordinance does is ban camping on any public property within the city, unless authorized by the city. Those accused of violating the ordinance can be given an administrative citation or be charged with a misdemeanor or an infraction, all of which come with fines.
Less than a month later, the Calimesa City Council voted unanimously in support of two ordinances aimed at addressing encampments in the city.
“It is important to note that homelessness is not a crime [and the] crisis surrounding the unhoused has many contributing factors, including lack of affordable housing, mental illness and drug addiction,” City Manager Will Kolbow said at the Nov. 18 meeting. “It is critical to balance the rights of the unhoused with those of residents and businesses that want a safe and healthy community.”
The first ordinance would prohibit people from setting up encampments on public or private property as well as living in personal vehicles parked on city streets or other public property, unless permitted by the city. It also introduces additional regulations for the use of public and private property, including for food distribution efforts. Anyone found in violation of the ordinance could face an administrative citation or be charged with an infraction or a misdemeanor.
The second ordinance specifically addresses the use of shopping carts and laundry carts for purposes unrelated to the intended use by the companies that own the carts, such as grocery stores and laundromats.
“I think these are some great ordinances, a nice collaboration of things that we’ve been working on for many months in the ad hoc committee,” Councilmember John Manly said. “So I think these [are] some great ordinances to help protect our quality of life and protect the businesses, especially in our downtown area.”
The council unanimously voted in favor of both ordinances with no further discussion or public comment. They will come back to the council at the Dec. 2 meeting for a second and final reading.
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