California City criminalizes “assistance” and “push” camps for homeless – CNN

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The California city votes to criminalize the “support” and “pushing” stray camps on Tuesday – an unusual move that defenders say can suffocate help for people who need it.

In addition to illegally making the public property camp, the policy that Fremont’s Municipal Council votes 6-1 to accept, also makes a crime for residents to support or support camps in a city with about 600 unaccounted people. Those who violate the policy that comes into force after 30 days can be sentenced to $ 1,000 and up to six months in prison.

However, it is not clear what falls right into the umbrella of “support” and “encouragement”, with experts saying that this can criminalize any humanitarian assistance to people who are not in an indisputable state – including from service providers, churches , spreading foods and street medical teams.

“The language is wide and unclear,” says Andrea Hanson, CEO and Berkli Legal Council for non -profit, where we go. “It can be used to distribute sleeping bags or to social workers. It can also apply to all non -profit organizations, legal organizations or churches that help homeless with their survival on the streets. A person who launches a friend of his own private property can be cited or arrested. ”

Terrain workers may have to make a choice between potentially keeping someone alive on a cold night by providing them with a tent or staying out of legal problems themselves, said Vivian Wang, CEO of Rebode Services, an organization of Fremont that helps restless people S

Fremont Mayor Raj Salvan said that the ordinance in the fourth largest city in the bay area is the protection of “common sense” for the neighborhoods and that the camps are an obstacle to homeless people who receive the necessary help.

“The main question is how to balance compassion with accountability,” said Fremont Mayor Raj Salvan at the Tuesday meeting. “Everyone should feel safe, walking to your library, to your local park, to your public places.”

The new policy comes about seven months after the Supreme Court ruled that the ban on camping on public property does not constitute a “cruel and unusual punishment”. After passing the city of grants, Oregon’s decision against Johnson, over 150 cities in the United States, have passed laws forbidding homeless people from sleeping in public – even when there is no shelter or housing, according to the National Center for Homelessness. Of these cities, 45 are in California.

A month after the grant’s decision, the California Gavin News government issued an executive order directing state agencies to sweep and remove the camps for homeless ones. Cities and cities throughout the country followed the costume, increasing the sweeping of bearings and introducing “anti-clump” regulations.

But this is the first such ordinance to criminalize “support” and “holding” homeless people, experts say.

“Although we cannot say for sure whether FreMont’s law is the result of a grant’s decision, he applies the same back, an ineffective and harmful approach inherent in these laws,” says Jesse Rabinitz, Campaign Director and Communications at the National Center for Homelessness. “None of these things will allow homelessness.”

Urban and civil servants are not sure how to react to a jump in homelessness and camps that have appeared under bridges and in city parks across the country. People who live in these camps and advocacy groups, in the meantime, say that they are anxious about the efforts to criminalize the population rather than build shelters and homes at affordable prices.

California was the country with the largest number of people who were experiencing homelessness in 2024, with over 187,000 people, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is more than a double national rate of 23 people who experience the homelessness of 10,000. Between 2023 and 2024, the population of the homeless population in California has increased by over 5600 people. In Alameda County by 2024 there were about 6300 homeless persons.

Throughout the country, more than 771,000 Americans experienced homelessness in a given night in January 2024 – the largest number of data collection and an increase of 19% since 2007, according to the department.

The Fremont Ordinance prohibits “causing, resolving, assisting, maintaining or concealing the camps” in or on any public property “, including any street, sidewalk, park or waterway. In addition, it makes it illegal for everyone to store personal property on any public property.

“As it is written, the proposed law is clearly unreasonable and will put the city of legal responsibility,” a group of 20 organizations wrote in a letter to the city last week. “This does not specify what kind of behavior they qualify as” support “,” resolving “or” adherence “.

Fremont’s city lawyer Rafael Alvarado said the law would not apply to those who provide food or clothing to homeless people.

“There will be no basis for the pursuit of criminal implementation of someone who gives to some other food or clothing under the conditions of this regulation,” Alvarado told the meeting of the Municipal Council on Tuesday.

John to, a senior AClu lawyer at Northern California, said while regulations as restrictions on camping and property have spread, this is the first to criminalize support and adherence.

“This is the first with this specific language,” Rabinovitz told CNN.

However, Fremont officials dispute that the ordinance is unique to the city.

“The general prohibition of assisting the violations of the Municipal Code Ordinances is a relatively common language shared by other cities in California,” says the city in a Document of the Camping Act, adding that “it was not specifically designed for violations of violations of Camping regulations, nor would it be unique to such violations. ”

CNN turned to Fremont City Prosecutor’s Office and the mayor for comment.

Proponents of the law say that this will help to keep the residents of Fremont safe.

“Missing some of these persons repeatedly can unnecessarily put firefighters and police officers in a way,” said Fremont Police Association before voting on Tuesday. “Acceptance of this Ordinance allows public safety experts to handle public safety problems while they are stationary [providing] Resources for our non -compliance members of the Community. ”

But the request of the law can be unconstitutional, having a “freezing effect” on those who may not want to risk punishment or who have previous crimes, Hanson told CNN.

“Police will have a broad freedom of right to implement, and this can lead to a freezing effect on those who support the non -cracks for fear of punishment,” she said.

Most organizations that provide homeless people with material support are non -profit, governed by volunteers and funded by private donations, Hanson said. If they are not able to provide this assistance because of the ordinance, people who are not isolated only further and efforts to reduce homelessness will be suffocated, she explained.

“This ordinance sends a strong message about how Fremont’s city seeks to segregate even more in order to isolate them from service providers and volunteers,” Hanson said. “People will be more cold and more likely to suffer in indescribable ways, as local authorities take away all the necessary survival tools.”

Even if information workers are not punished for providing basic services and consumables such as food, blankets and clothing, they are still concerned that they can be quoted, fined or even arrested if they provide tents as they often do during the time of Cold and wet spells, said Wang, CEO of Abode Services.

Despite the city lawyer’s assurances that the terrain employees will not be affected, the dwelling place seeks guidance from a lawyer to help set up an agreement to offer the city to ensure that its staff is not subject to this regulation, Wan said S It would also clarify whether their customers’ information would remain confidential and whether the support of people with tents was allowed “as the language in the regulation seems extremely wide,” she said.

Restricting information information can lead to harder health, housing and economic results – while increasing the costs of cities in the police and emergency services, said Califormition Communications Alex Brown director.

“The very threat of penalties can deter people and organizations to provide basic help, leaving more people without access to the support they need to survive,” Brown said.

More cities could be empowered by Fremont’s ordinance to implement such policies, say homelessness experts.

“Citias are going for the quick decision, which is an illusion,” Hanson said.

This is part of the growing trend that “limiting the ability of defenders to support neighbors who have not been observed and to monitor the practices of the application of the city,” DO said. This includes an increasing number of jurisdictions that prohibit activities like Panhandling or the provision of food to people, he said.

“Targeting people who offer help to the needy do nothing to solve homelessness,” he said.

Hanson said her organization is ready to bring a case against the city if the law violates the rights of Unhoused or those who help them, she said.

“At the moment, if you have not taken over, all your existence is illegal and in the city of Fremont you are also engaged in illegal behavior if you seek to protect someone from the cold, to feed them, to help them with an affordable structure or to store your personal Personal things, ”she said.