Council Bans Sleeping Items in Anti-Camping Law

September 12, 2024 -- A change to Santa Monica's anti-camping ordinance made by the City Council Tuesday night highlighted the deep divisions over crime and homelessness that could decide the November election.

Backed by the Council's slim 4 to 3 law-and-order majority, the change would reinsert a ban on sleeping bags, blankets and pillows that was removed from the local law in November 2022.

Police Chief Ramon Batista told the Council the change would give police officers a tool they can use to engage with the City's highly visible homeless population and make it easier to remove illegal encampments.

"A tent is not in and of itself an encampment," Batista said. "I think at the end of the day, (the amendment) gives the officer greater flexibility and being able to anchor his decision on a legal position."

In addition, "having the restriction removed gives the officers just one more opportunity to start that engagement and have that conversation" with a homeless individual who may need services, Batista said.

The change was among three options proposed by City Attorney Doug Sloan after a June 28 U.S. Supreme Court ruling paved the way for municipalities to penalize the homeless for camping on public land.

Councilmember Oscar de la Torre said the goal in making the changes was not to arrest the homeless, noting that Santa Monica jail can only hold 90 people.

"We're not in support of taking away pillows and blankets," de la Torre said. "We all have a heart, we want to help people. But we're being overrun.

"A lot of people are here in our city with bad intentions," de la Torre said. "They're doing drugs, thinking of committing crimes, carrying weapons, and many (of the victims) are homeless themselves."

Councilmember Lana Negrete agreed, noting that 67 percent of the arrests made by Santa Monica police are of suspects who are homeless.

"What we are responding to is the fact that we have a mental health crisis and a substance abuse crisis, and the majority of the people on the streets are experiencing these things."

Santa Monica, Negrete said, has services and service providers and should "create an environment where we say we want to be able to engage and encourage you to get those services."

The Council's minority, backed by Santa Monica's political establishment, argued that the amendment further criminalizes being homeless and makes it even more uncomfortable, and even perilous, to live on the streets.

Councilmember Jesse Zwick noted that five homeless people died in LA County of hypothermia last year.

If a homeless person is forced to give up their sleeping bag, Zwick said, "what have we done except deprive them of something that could be life saving?"

Councilmember Gleam Davis said that "if we are going to have people experiencing homelessness in our community, I do want to have genuine compassion."

Instead, Davis said, the Council is engaging in a "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.”

Negrete responded, "Why would we want to promote that you should make it as comfortable as possible to be unhoused?"

Opponents, Negrete said, are "trying to paint a picture that women and children and people with babies are shivering in the rain and cold outside, and that's our homeless population."

Mayor Phil Brock concluded, "Our residents are beyond frustrated," he said. "They're fearful of their own city."