Peace Camp 2010 votes to continue protest

Gary Johnson sleeps legally at 10:30AM at Peace Camp 2010, one-half hour before the Sleeping Ban goes into effect. His protest includes signage saying "Legalize Dreaming" and "Sleep is not a Crime!" August 20, 2010 photo by Becky Johnson

by Becky Johnson
September 16, 2010

Santa Cruz, Ca. -- After the Santa Cruz City Council passed a modification of the Sleeping Ban at its September 14th meeting, Peace Campers held their own council meeting. At that meeting, the question was asked "Shall we disband our protest because of the action of the City Council to dismiss citations written to those on the Homeless Services Center waiting list?"

The vote was 7 - 0 with 2 abstentions to continue the protest. The general consensus was that forcing people to register for the waiting list did not meet our demands to have the Sleeping Ban and Blanket Ban suspended or repealed and past citations ( to the extent it is practicable) be dismissed.

The measure still calls for police to awaken, to detain, to cite, and to move-along sleepers even if no shelter exists. The policy ONLY calls for the City Attorney to dismiss citations if the person cited can prove they were on the waiting list for shelter at the Homeless Services Center. This is clearly NOT what Peace Camp 2010 is about.

If, when said and done, the policy requires police to skip or not cite those with a receipt for the waiting list, then this would be an improvement, however minor. But, unfortunately this is not. As Assistant City Manager Tina Schull said on Tuesday, "Any person cited who is not on the waiting list would not have their ticket dismissed." This, even if no shelter was available that night! Leave it to the City Attorney to more narrowly define what elements a homeless person is entitled to under the necessity defense!

Police cite Collette Donally, age 72 at 10:30AM for
"setting up a campsite with the intent of spending the night."
August 19, 2010 Photo by Becky Johnson

Sleeping itself should not be a crime. Sleeping harms no one. Denying sleep to a person who will ultimately be found innocent robs that person of their sleep, and causes immediate and irreparable harm.

"Not only is Peace Camp 2010 going to continue, but we're also going to start holding Koffee Klatches on occasion in the mornings," reports Linda Lemaster, a housed Peace Camp 2010 supporter.

Citations waived for homeless on shelter list: Santa Cruz camping ban altered to cover more than winter refuge

NOTE TO READER: The title to this article is misleading. Tickets are not "waived" but issued and require a homeless person to STILL be awakened, cited, moved along, and charged. However, they can then take their citation to the City Attorney for dismissal IF they can prove they are on the waiting list. What we need is a policy which LEAVES THEM ALONE if they are on the waiting list. --Becky Johnson, Ed.

By J.M. BROWN -- Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted: 09/14/2010 09:02:39 PM PDT

found online at: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_16074932

SANTA CRUZ - The City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to give homeless people a break if they are on a shelter wait list when they receive a citation for overnight camping.

Current rules allow the city to waive such tickets when the winter shelter at the former National Guard Armory site is full. It doesn't cover times when other year-round shelters are full, but the long-standing practice of the city attorney has been to dismiss citations written when such shelters are full.

Robert Norse, a longtime advocate for the homeless who has sued the city over First Amendment protections, called the change "a minor step forward."

But he and others argued that it does little to reverse a camping ban that criminalizes homelessness and sleeping outside. Critics said the rules also create a burden for homeless to visit the shelter every day to check on the wait list.

"It does no good to say you are on a waiting list because you still have to sleep outside," Norse said.

Norse suggested the council add a requirement that those on a wait list receive a receipt that could be shown to an officer, who would then be prohibited from writing a ticket.

Monica Martinez, director of the Homeless Services Center, said she supported the change because it makes the camping ban "more compassionate."

She said her center could issue some sort of verification that people are on a wait list but cautioned that a person, rather than taking advantage of a bed when it becomes available, keep the receipt indefinitely. She said it would be too onerous for staff to give the same homeless person a wait-list receipt every day.

The council's decision left details about wait list verification for the city attorney to work out with shelter providers.

Earlier this week, City Manager Martin Bernal acknowledged a key aim of the ordinance change is to determine, "Are people actually making an effort" to find shelter. He said the change is not in direct response to PeaceCamp 2010, a protest organized by Norse.

The demonstration against the camping ban began July 4 at the county courthouse lawn but was moved outside City Hall once it was clear that city police had no intention of citing participants on county property.

Since then, police have issued 107 citations, the majority of which are for the ban against camping from 11 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. Officers have also made 21 arrests for ignoring demands to leave the property an array of other charges.

More tickets issued at Santa Cruz camping demonstration; protestor arrested for alleged stealing another man's bedroll

By Jennifer Squires

Posted: 08/14/2010 01:30:55 AM PDT

found online at: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_15776512

SANTA CRUZ -- Police ticketed three demonstrators camping on the City Hall lawn were ticketed early Friday and, later in the morning an argument between two protesters led to an arrest, Santa Cruz police reported.

Friday was the third day the Peace Camp 2010 protest has been held at the city complex.

The demonstration targets the city's camping ordinance, which prohibits sleeping outside between 11 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. It launched in front of the county courthouse on July Fourth and moved to City Hall early Wednesday.

An argument between two protesters around Friday morning merited drew police. One demonstrator claimed another demonstrator stole his bedroll the night before and a security guard told police he overheard the alleged thief threaten the bedroll owner with a knife, Vogel said.

David Hooser, 50, from Washington state, was arrested on suspicion of disturbing the peace and theft, police said.

"It's a sad commentary when the participants of Peace Camp 2010 are the ones disturbing each other's peace," Vogel said.

Demonstrators are calling for the City Council to lift the so-called "sleeping ban" and exonerate everyone cited under the law since 1978. They say the tickets are unreasonable because there isn't enough shelter for the city's large homeless population.

City leaders and some homeless advocates have said the protest represents a small group of homeless and that those people are choosing not to take advantage of the city's many homeless services.

The numbers of campers at the protest has declined from nearly 60 at the courthouse to eight when police went to the demonstration around 2:40 a.m. Friday, Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Kevin Vogel said. He credited the reduction to police enforcement.

The camping tickets are less than $100, but if people rack up more than three city ordinance citations and fail to pay the fines, the violations become a misdemeanor.

Of the three people ticketed Friday, two listed the Homeless Services Center on Coral Street as their address. The third told police she was from Indiana but transient, Vogel said. He did not say how long she had been in the area.

Santa Cruz homeless activists take their fight to City Hall, literally; city leaders vow to enforce camping ban

By JENNIFER SQUIRES and J.M. BROWN

August 12, 2010

found online at: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_15751792?source=most_viewed

NOTE TO READER: This article appears to be an updated version of yesterday's story. --Ed.

SANTA CRUZ -- One person was ticketed when a six-week protest of the Santa Cruz camping ban took up residence on the City Hall lawn early Wednesday.

The so-called Peace Camp 2010 changed tactics overnight when campers moved their demonstration from the county courthouse steps to the city property. Protest leader Christopher Doyon said they moved so they could better target the city ordinance that prohibits camping from 11 p.m. to 8:30 a.m.

Wednesday morning, a few men rested under a tree on the City Hall lawn while a woman and her puppy sat amid cardboard protest signs.

"We have not heard anything from City Hall," said the woman, who goes by Red. "Basically, we'd like people to notice."

A First Alarm security guard patrolling city property noticed the camping demonstration around 5 a.m. and notified police. A 20-year-old Salinas man was cited, according to police.

Officers will return nightly to ticket demonstrators, Deputy Santa Cruz Police Chief Kevin Vogel said.

"We're not going to issue any warnings," Vogel said. "The people involved in this protest have been warned for the past six weeks."

The demonstration began July Fourth on a swath of county-owned land in front of the Santa Cruz County Courthouse. Initially billed as a sleep-only protest, the activity morphed into an all-day hangout and drew criticism because of health and safety concerns.

Demonstrators were cited for violating a state anti-lodging law, not

the so-called "camping ban" that has been contested on and off in Santa Cruz for years.

The sleep-in was designed to specifically violate the municipal ordinance, but county officials said they couldn't enforce the city's law, while city police said they wouldn't write tickets on county property.

Demonstrators want the City Council to rescind the no-camping law and forgive all tickets ever issued under it. Red said it's unfair for people to have to pay hundreds of dollars in fines for falling asleep.

She said she started living on the street in May when her motor home broke down, was towed and sold at auction. She can't go to the homeless shelter because her pup, 8-month-old Wiley, isn't allowed, she said. Also, according to protesters, all of the beds at the Homeless Services Center on Coral Street are taken.

"There's no room at the shelter," Red said. "There's absolutely nowhere for us to go."

City Attorney John Barisone typically dismisses camping tickets if the shelters were full the night the citations were issued. However, Vogel said officers would continue to cite campers at the City Hall demonstration regardless of the situation at the shelter.

"The plan is enforcement," he said. "City Hall is not a place for people to sleep during the nighttime hours."

Councilman Don Lane, a longtime volunteer at the Homeless Services Center, said he supports ticketing those who violate the camping ban.

"The folks who are protesting are not really doing any favors to the greater homeless community in Santa Cruz, most of whom aren't involved in that protest," Lane said, adding that the demonstration tests the community's will to help those who truly need it. "People don't always make a distinction between activists trying to make a political point and the average homeless person who is just trying to get services and make their life a little better."

Lane acknowledged shelter beds can be hard to come by, but he said he doesn't believe the demonstrators have necessarily tried to seek shelter.

"From their perspective, they want the camping law to be enforced and get arrested to make a political point," he said. "What we're trying to do is say to people who are vulnerable to homelessness, 'At least go over and get on a waiting list.'"

Monica Martinez, executive director, confirmed there were no beds available Wednesday and that only five people signed up for the list, which is consistent with the five to 10 people who sign up on average every day. The center has 46 beds available for 30 days at a time, and every Monday beds open for those who are leaving.

"It could take a couple of days or it could take a couple of weeks, but those people who want beds get beds at the center," she said.

The River Street Shelter, a separate facility on the same Harvey West property as the Homeless Services Center, has a 32-bed emergency shelter for adults to stay up to 30 days, but about 60 percent of the space is set aside for referrals from the county mental health agency for clients to stay up to 90 days. The remainder of the beds are subject to a waiting list that requires checking in every two days.

Night Two: People Protest Sleeping Ban

Night Two: People Protest Sleeping Ban

Posted: Jul 05, 2010 11:29 PM PDT Updated: Jul 05, 2010 11:29 PM PDT

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - For the second time this week, people are getting their sleeping bags and blankets ready to stand up for what they think is right. They said they're not going away until the city ends its 40-year-old "Sleeping Ban."

"I think the sleeping ban is ridiculous," said Orbit, houseless individual.

"It's kind of unconstitutional for people to tell me that I cannot live, and I need sleep to live," said houseless individual, K.C.

Homeless individuals and a group of people with the homeless united for friendship and freedom want to send a message to the city of Santa Cruz. They say they have the right to sleep outside within city limits. K.C. told Central Coast News he's been homeless for nearly 4 years, and sleeping outside is his only option.

"There is no housing. There is no place to sleep at night. You go to the shelter you have to wait 6 months. If you sign up for the low income housing, you have to wait 2 years," said K.C.

Other people camping out said it's been difficult for them to find a shelter with available beds. Monday night, we went to the Homeless Services Center to find out how hard it actually is for people to get housing assistance. Monica Martinez with the center told me spaces fill up quick.

"We currently have 32 shelter beds for men and 14 beds for women, which definitely doesn't meet the need for the homeless individuals for the county. We allow people to get on a waiting list. Our current waiting list is about anywhere between two weeks to a month an a half to get emergency shelter," said Monica Martinez, Santa Cruz Homeless Services Center.

Martinez said there are at least 2,000 homeless individuals in Santa Cruz County and approximately 100 to 200 beds available in the city of Santa Cruz alone. She told me there's huge need for more shelters and beds in the city. She's hoping there can be a compromise between the city and those who want to appeal the "sleeping ban."

"I really think that if we work together, we can come up with a solution," said Martinez.

City officials told us they are happy with the law and will continue to enforce the law. People out here say they will continue to camp out every night until the city suspends the ordinance or sets up a legal place to sleep at night.

Submitted by Susanne Brunner, Central Coast News.