2.-Y. ID 24-1045 ***BILL-23 (Intro'd July 29, 2024) (For Adoption) - Amending Sections 10-1703(a), 10-1707, 10-2101, 10-2204, 10-2205 of the Fresno Municipal Code, Relating to the Prohibition of Camping in Public Places (Subject to Mayor's Veto)
In addition to being cruel, this ordinance is not an effective means to solve Fresno's homeless epidemic. An epidemic that this council actively causes through both their misallocation of funds and corporate allegiances. According to the data coming out of programs in both Finland and Canada, the programs that do work to solve homelessness long-term take a housing-first approach. This ordinance is exactly the wrong approach and is diametrically opposed to the actual solution. I vehemently oppose the adoption of this ordinance and will vehemently organize against the future election of anyone who approves this inhumane and counterproductive ordinance as you have shown yourselves to lack the level of humanity and judgment necessary to responsibly serve the citizens of Fresno.
This is nonsensical. We've already had the jails filled with nonviolent offenders previously and then they were released. This seems like a political stunt to gain a vote. Don't waste our time, money, and energy over this. There's no need to group everyone up into the same category just to meet a quota. To put it simply, if you can't help those who are suffering around you and conduct it in a civilized manner then maybe rethink your career path.
This law is inhumane and gives the FPD a ridiculous amount of power to intimidate, threaten, and harass ANYONE in a public space. The most vulnerable and marginalized amongst our neighbors will face even more hardship. ONE Fresno- should be one that listens to its constituents, and who follows through with what is best for the people. Don’t vote Yes on criminalizing existing in public spaces. Work to make this city better by providing affordable housing and equitable access to services. There are over 4000 unhoused residents in Fresno that need stable housing, not emergency shelter, not a religious institution, not a short term voucher, not unsafe housing near the shelters, where many people suffered from severe traumas. People need a hand up- not a hand off to jail or juvenile hall. It is proven that jail/ prison sentences only exacerbates housing insecurity. If the city is going to criminalize sleeping in public we must have infrastructure in place where people can sleep- peacefully, without more harm caused by Police. Police and City employees must be trained in trauma informed care and held accountable to uphold these standards. There is so much good work to be done in Fresno. Use your power for good, and vote NO. Voting yes shows that you don’t care about Fresno. Voting No is a brave act to prove your humanity and care for the people of Fresno.
This ordinance is inhumane and unhelpful to the unhoused crisis in Fresno. It criminalizes being in public spaces for all Fresnoians, but will mainly be targeted at the unhoused unfairly. Homelessness is a symptom of a dysfunctional society. There are numerous resources to go to in this city, many organizations that are willing to help, anAd experts that can provide information. Many of them came to speak at previous meetings about this issue and were completely dismissed. It is clear these elected officials are not working in their constituents’ best interests and anyone that votes in favor for this ordinance should be recalled. It is easy to get signatures and support for this as many people are against this.
This bill is criminalization of every person in Fresno, but especially our unhoused community, and it is unlawful. Housing insecurity can be solved by holding developers accountable to build low-income, high-density housing. Developers are building suburbs further east while the rest of the city subsidizes it. How many unoccupied buildings and residences exist in Fresno that could be utilized as temporary or permanent shelter? Shelter and sleep, alongside food and water, are our most important needs; we will all die without them. They should be a human right no matter an individuals ability. Children, Elders, people with physical or mental health challenges no matter their age, even people with able enough bodies to work but aren't fortunate enough to make enough money to support themselves or families, need a place to call home. We all deserve a safe space to sleep. City leaders have a responsibility to keep us safe and fight for our interests over developers. It's an obvious choice what the people of Fresno want: the right to exist and be safe. Why are we threatening to spend millions of tax dollars to fine, harass and jail people for existing outside? It just takes signatures to recall anyone who votes yes for this ordinance. Voting yes means you stand against all the people of Fresno, in favor of landlords and developers. FresNo is for the people.
I’m a D3 resident of the Edison region I have many unhoused neighbors who have lost shelter for various reasons outside their control from job loss to domestic violence. It is beyond frustrating to watch them slowly try to pull their lives together only to have the HART(less) task force come and throw away what little they have. This includes legal documents needed to access resources, medication, or other personal effects. This ordinance does nothing to help people get off the street and only further harms and traumatizes them simply for falling on hard times. Countless veterans, elderly, disabled harassed and belittled by those who should be helping them. It’s cruel, inhumane and a waste of our resources as we know that incarcerating people costs significantly more than housing them. We need rent stabilization and affordable housing. We leaders to stop blaming the victims of the housing crisis they created and actually do something to solve this problem. This ordinance goes against the Christian and America values that our council members and mayor profess to believe. Continuously taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Anyone who supports this should be recalled immediately.
“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth”. Vote no.
Not sure whether I agree that this is the best solution, but given it will likely pass given vote record at previous meeting, I would at least like to see it amended to read, "No sitting in the same public place continuously for more than two hours" etc., instead of reading, "No sitting in a public place" etc (without minimum time limit) to prevent criminalizing generally accepted activities such as sitting down at a park bench to read a book, or take a lunch break from work, setting down a blanket at the park to let a baby crawl and play, or sitting on a bus stop bench while waiting for a bus.
This ordinance does not address safety of either unhoused folks or the community at large. Jail and fines further destabilize peoples lives. After 4 hours of public comment, many people expressed HART was not effective. Good urban planning examines when strategies fail and comes together with the folks impacted to identify ways to address specific community needs. Fresno has waived 10 million in developer fees in the last decade. The city's Kings Canyon fee waiver program, has yet to benefit any small businesses in southeast Fresno, Only a Taco Bell franchise has benefitted. My grandma owned a Botanica cultural healing store in South East Fresno until it closed. As a small business owner myself, I care for her part time as she has dimensia I have not been able to find clear pathways to Aging in Place support. My grandma was almost evicted and instead we had to take over. Criminalizing our unhoused neighbors to put more money toward policing while decreasing other programs is not going to address this issue, that is not my idea of safety. I was born and raised in fresno. My mom and cousins are home owners here in districts 1, 2, 5, and 6 and my mom rents our old house out for affordable prices because this market is insane. I am exhausted and frustrated about the burdens placed on my family to address this crisis because council refuses to engage in authentic good faith inclusive participatory community engagement.
Homelessness is not a problem, it's a symptom of the state of this country. Many individuals find themselves on the streets for situations out of their control, and it is completely unfair to criminalize them for it. Many individuals are struggling to stay afloat right now amongst inflation, housing costs, and insufficient wages. It's unrealistic and inhumane to expect someone to get themselves off of the street to avoid jail time and fines, of which most could not afford to pay with their money or time. Money and time that they could better use to improve their quality of life. All that our fellow humans ask for is kindness, compassion, and empathy when it can be spared. In criminalizing the homeless we are choosing to reinforce the idea that these people are on their own, that they are choosing to suffer and live as they do. Everyone deserves a safe place to sleep, a roof over their head, the promise of a meal, and the ability to guarantee themselves one. They are living in a world that actively deprives them of the ability to care for themselves, and being told by their city that they must or they face punishment. We must have kindness and compassion for everyone around us. I hope that if I was to ever lose my job or home and my ability to take care of myself, that I would not be judged for my circumstances, but understood for my situation.
The claim that this prohibition is not criminalizing homelessness is willfully ignorant to the harms that it will create. This will only put people who are in need of help into custody for simply trying to live because as many have shared, they have nowhere else to go. My line of work is with victims of domestic violence, and I hear constantly that they are having to live on the streets due to their victimization and the subsequent rules of the court. There are long waiting lists for shelters and strict rules that victims cannot follow (eg. not being able to bring their son), and now they will be victimized again by the system if they are to be incarcerated for being homeless. Much research has been done to show that incarceration besets more incarceration when it is done without consideration of assistance. These are people already struggling, having a criminal record will only hurt them more and lead to more recidivism when they have no other options - if they can’t find a home, they can’t work, and if they can’t work, they can’t find a home. What else is one to do but whatever they can by any means necessary to live? The money funneled to the HART team and the like could be better used actually helping people find homes, get treatment and support. Please reconsider, listen to the advocates speaking to you, and actually help the citizens of Fresno.
It should not be a crime if someone cannot afford housing. California has some of the highest housing costs in the country, not to mention the cost of living as a whole, so it is extremely unfair to expect everyone to be able to have access to housing. It seems clear that one main reason this is happening is that the systems of prisons and policing want more people jailed so the people at the top of those systems can make even more money than they already do. Also, many inmates are forced to work for an abysmal amount of pay, including for well-known corporations and even for fire departments during wildfire season. Is that what the goal of the Fresno City Council is? To make more money for people who profit off of suffering, and to practically enslave those who are struggling to survive? That's the only real conclusion that can be drawn from this. I can't imagine everyone on the council would support that (although there's one councilmember in mind who would), but will support it anyways because these people are not considered human to many. People want this "scourge" to be removed from society so they don't have to be reminded that this city, state, and country does not take care of their people like they say they do. But these people are human and need help, even further than just allowing them to live on the street. But rejecting this inhumane, and frankly evil item is a first step.
This is not a solution to homelessness, this is erasing people's humanity and treating them as an ugly sight to be swept away. Fresno spends an astronomical amount of money on its police department instead of using tax dollars to actually target poverty by reigning in exploitative real estate owners that are charging rents that take the majority of a person's income. Homelessness is not a problem of hard work. Plenty of homeless people work, businesses refusing to pay living wages alongside landlords refusing to charge reasonable rents are two of the biggest factors that cause people to lose housing. Lacking the resources necessary to afford shelter should not be a crime.
We have heard from advocates, social workers, non profits that we do NOT have enough beds or housing for the homeless and yet, our city council continues to talk as if we do. It is like watching the king parade with no clothes and yet you are still loudly clamoring that he has some on.
If you want to change this, let's get busy working on low income housing. Let's pass an ordinance that landlords can't leave there properties to sit and rot for years. Let's require they get them back on the market within 6 months or put it up for sale so someone else can. Our city and urban communities are full of JD homes that are allowed to sit, be a source of equity for their company while bringing blight to our community. We have empty lots that owners are allowed to sit for years. Currently living by one- a house burned down 20 years ago and this owner has done nothing with it. It collects trash our kids have to walk by on their way to school. Time to say NO MORE... Get busy making a difference in our city or sell the property to people who will.
We need to be honest about the length of time it is taking for people who qualify for low income housing and have vouchers to find a place to live. We act as if getting a voucher means we get housing. No, often families vouchers expire before they can actually find a house. Let's stop blaming and start working to find nuanced multi layered solutions to a complex program.
You have access to experts in the fields of city planning, economics, and sociology and yet choose to make decisions that solve no problems for anyone in the city for the sake of making it look prettier. If you want to get something done, take action instead of trying to hide the problem.
The zoning within the city is beyond reprehensible and every single time I show it to students of city planning or their teachers they mock us for it and point out how awful it is for people to be so cut off from amenities and work, and that such cutoffs and lengths required to travel only perpetuate these sorts of problems because the individual may be provided work but the commute may also make it difficult, unfeasible, or impossible to get to the workplace. Every single time I talk to anyone from any other city about how we lack shelters yet complain about the problem, they mock us for perpetuating our own problem and pretending we aren’t the cause.
You really think the homeless just don’t want help? Go be put into their shoes. It doesn’t take rocket science to determine most homeless people have mental health issues, went homeless due to mental health issues, and quite literally cannot consent to treatment due to not being in a mental capacity to do so. Address that problem, you morons.
It’s things like this that makes people want to leave Fresno and people like you are supposed to be listening to us.
This ordinance violates the “equal protections of the law” clause of the 14th amendment since only those with full ownership of private property have “protections of the law” while those with mortgages and those who rent (both groups being propertyless workers, called “proletarians”, and lumpen-bourgeoisie such as accountants or lawyers) don’t have “equal protections of the law” since: those with the most property have the most access to lawmaking and law revising bodies, and those who have the least property are able to be jailed for owning or having no access to property. This ordinance also violates the 14th amendment’s “equal protections under the law” clause due to disabled people being at risk of legally being charged for “violating” this ordinance since: type 1 diabetics, among other people with disabilities, may need to “sit down in public spaces or on public properties” to address diabetic health issues or they may end up “lying down in public spaces or on public properties” due to untreated diabetic issues which could then lead to them “sleeping in public spaces or on public properties” in the form of comas — all of which can lead to arrest instead of a preventable, if this ordinance isn’t enacted, physical check up. This ordinance also violates the 1st amendment since the remaining lawful protest methods are suited for able bodied people; and the protest methods of sitting, lying, or sleeping are deprived.
It’s unfair and unkind to arrest a person who is sleeping in a public place.
How could this be a crime?
This will cause unnecessary hardships in the unhoused community.
There is not enough affordable housing for our community.
How can someone ever “bounce back” when the system makes it almost impossible to do so.
I have a stable job and still struggle with housing insecurity due to the rent prices and inflation of costs.
Furthermore not everyone has a support system to help guide them.
Also have you ever accidentally fell asleep on the city bus, imagine going to jail or getting a ticket for this?
In addition to being cruel, this ordinance is not an effective means to solve Fresno's homeless epidemic. An epidemic that this council actively causes through both their misallocation of funds and corporate allegiances. According to the data coming out of programs in both Finland and Canada, the programs that do work to solve homelessness long-term take a housing-first approach. This ordinance is exactly the wrong approach and is diametrically opposed to the actual solution. I vehemently oppose the adoption of this ordinance and will vehemently organize against the future election of anyone who approves this inhumane and counterproductive ordinance as you have shown yourselves to lack the level of humanity and judgment necessary to responsibly serve the citizens of Fresno.
This is nonsensical. We've already had the jails filled with nonviolent offenders previously and then they were released. This seems like a political stunt to gain a vote. Don't waste our time, money, and energy over this. There's no need to group everyone up into the same category just to meet a quota. To put it simply, if you can't help those who are suffering around you and conduct it in a civilized manner then maybe rethink your career path.
This law is inhumane and gives the FPD a ridiculous amount of power to intimidate, threaten, and harass ANYONE in a public space. The most vulnerable and marginalized amongst our neighbors will face even more hardship. ONE Fresno- should be one that listens to its constituents, and who follows through with what is best for the people. Don’t vote Yes on criminalizing existing in public spaces. Work to make this city better by providing affordable housing and equitable access to services. There are over 4000 unhoused residents in Fresno that need stable housing, not emergency shelter, not a religious institution, not a short term voucher, not unsafe housing near the shelters, where many people suffered from severe traumas. People need a hand up- not a hand off to jail or juvenile hall. It is proven that jail/ prison sentences only exacerbates housing insecurity. If the city is going to criminalize sleeping in public we must have infrastructure in place where people can sleep- peacefully, without more harm caused by Police. Police and City employees must be trained in trauma informed care and held accountable to uphold these standards. There is so much good work to be done in Fresno. Use your power for good, and vote NO. Voting yes shows that you don’t care about Fresno. Voting No is a brave act to prove your humanity and care for the people of Fresno.
This ordinance is inhumane and unhelpful to the unhoused crisis in Fresno. It criminalizes being in public spaces for all Fresnoians, but will mainly be targeted at the unhoused unfairly. Homelessness is a symptom of a dysfunctional society. There are numerous resources to go to in this city, many organizations that are willing to help, anAd experts that can provide information. Many of them came to speak at previous meetings about this issue and were completely dismissed. It is clear these elected officials are not working in their constituents’ best interests and anyone that votes in favor for this ordinance should be recalled. It is easy to get signatures and support for this as many people are against this.
This bill is criminalization of every person in Fresno, but especially our unhoused community, and it is unlawful. Housing insecurity can be solved by holding developers accountable to build low-income, high-density housing. Developers are building suburbs further east while the rest of the city subsidizes it. How many unoccupied buildings and residences exist in Fresno that could be utilized as temporary or permanent shelter? Shelter and sleep, alongside food and water, are our most important needs; we will all die without them. They should be a human right no matter an individuals ability. Children, Elders, people with physical or mental health challenges no matter their age, even people with able enough bodies to work but aren't fortunate enough to make enough money to support themselves or families, need a place to call home. We all deserve a safe space to sleep. City leaders have a responsibility to keep us safe and fight for our interests over developers. It's an obvious choice what the people of Fresno want: the right to exist and be safe. Why are we threatening to spend millions of tax dollars to fine, harass and jail people for existing outside? It just takes signatures to recall anyone who votes yes for this ordinance. Voting yes means you stand against all the people of Fresno, in favor of landlords and developers. FresNo is for the people.
I’m a D3 resident of the Edison region I have many unhoused neighbors who have lost shelter for various reasons outside their control from job loss to domestic violence. It is beyond frustrating to watch them slowly try to pull their lives together only to have the HART(less) task force come and throw away what little they have. This includes legal documents needed to access resources, medication, or other personal effects. This ordinance does nothing to help people get off the street and only further harms and traumatizes them simply for falling on hard times. Countless veterans, elderly, disabled harassed and belittled by those who should be helping them. It’s cruel, inhumane and a waste of our resources as we know that incarcerating people costs significantly more than housing them. We need rent stabilization and affordable housing. We leaders to stop blaming the victims of the housing crisis they created and actually do something to solve this problem. This ordinance goes against the Christian and America values that our council members and mayor profess to believe. Continuously taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Anyone who supports this should be recalled immediately.
“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth”. Vote no.
Not sure whether I agree that this is the best solution, but given it will likely pass given vote record at previous meeting, I would at least like to see it amended to read, "No sitting in the same public place continuously for more than two hours" etc., instead of reading, "No sitting in a public place" etc (without minimum time limit) to prevent criminalizing generally accepted activities such as sitting down at a park bench to read a book, or take a lunch break from work, setting down a blanket at the park to let a baby crawl and play, or sitting on a bus stop bench while waiting for a bus.
This ordinance does not address safety of either unhoused folks or the community at large. Jail and fines further destabilize peoples lives. After 4 hours of public comment, many people expressed HART was not effective. Good urban planning examines when strategies fail and comes together with the folks impacted to identify ways to address specific community needs. Fresno has waived 10 million in developer fees in the last decade. The city's Kings Canyon fee waiver program, has yet to benefit any small businesses in southeast Fresno, Only a Taco Bell franchise has benefitted. My grandma owned a Botanica cultural healing store in South East Fresno until it closed. As a small business owner myself, I care for her part time as she has dimensia I have not been able to find clear pathways to Aging in Place support. My grandma was almost evicted and instead we had to take over. Criminalizing our unhoused neighbors to put more money toward policing while decreasing other programs is not going to address this issue, that is not my idea of safety. I was born and raised in fresno. My mom and cousins are home owners here in districts 1, 2, 5, and 6 and my mom rents our old house out for affordable prices because this market is insane. I am exhausted and frustrated about the burdens placed on my family to address this crisis because council refuses to engage in authentic good faith inclusive participatory community engagement.
Homelessness is not a problem, it's a symptom of the state of this country. Many individuals find themselves on the streets for situations out of their control, and it is completely unfair to criminalize them for it. Many individuals are struggling to stay afloat right now amongst inflation, housing costs, and insufficient wages. It's unrealistic and inhumane to expect someone to get themselves off of the street to avoid jail time and fines, of which most could not afford to pay with their money or time. Money and time that they could better use to improve their quality of life. All that our fellow humans ask for is kindness, compassion, and empathy when it can be spared. In criminalizing the homeless we are choosing to reinforce the idea that these people are on their own, that they are choosing to suffer and live as they do. Everyone deserves a safe place to sleep, a roof over their head, the promise of a meal, and the ability to guarantee themselves one. They are living in a world that actively deprives them of the ability to care for themselves, and being told by their city that they must or they face punishment. We must have kindness and compassion for everyone around us. I hope that if I was to ever lose my job or home and my ability to take care of myself, that I would not be judged for my circumstances, but understood for my situation.
The claim that this prohibition is not criminalizing homelessness is willfully ignorant to the harms that it will create. This will only put people who are in need of help into custody for simply trying to live because as many have shared, they have nowhere else to go. My line of work is with victims of domestic violence, and I hear constantly that they are having to live on the streets due to their victimization and the subsequent rules of the court. There are long waiting lists for shelters and strict rules that victims cannot follow (eg. not being able to bring their son), and now they will be victimized again by the system if they are to be incarcerated for being homeless. Much research has been done to show that incarceration besets more incarceration when it is done without consideration of assistance. These are people already struggling, having a criminal record will only hurt them more and lead to more recidivism when they have no other options - if they can’t find a home, they can’t work, and if they can’t work, they can’t find a home. What else is one to do but whatever they can by any means necessary to live? The money funneled to the HART team and the like could be better used actually helping people find homes, get treatment and support. Please reconsider, listen to the advocates speaking to you, and actually help the citizens of Fresno.
It should not be a crime if someone cannot afford housing. California has some of the highest housing costs in the country, not to mention the cost of living as a whole, so it is extremely unfair to expect everyone to be able to have access to housing. It seems clear that one main reason this is happening is that the systems of prisons and policing want more people jailed so the people at the top of those systems can make even more money than they already do. Also, many inmates are forced to work for an abysmal amount of pay, including for well-known corporations and even for fire departments during wildfire season. Is that what the goal of the Fresno City Council is? To make more money for people who profit off of suffering, and to practically enslave those who are struggling to survive? That's the only real conclusion that can be drawn from this. I can't imagine everyone on the council would support that (although there's one councilmember in mind who would), but will support it anyways because these people are not considered human to many. People want this "scourge" to be removed from society so they don't have to be reminded that this city, state, and country does not take care of their people like they say they do. But these people are human and need help, even further than just allowing them to live on the street. But rejecting this inhumane, and frankly evil item is a first step.
This is not a solution to homelessness, this is erasing people's humanity and treating them as an ugly sight to be swept away. Fresno spends an astronomical amount of money on its police department instead of using tax dollars to actually target poverty by reigning in exploitative real estate owners that are charging rents that take the majority of a person's income. Homelessness is not a problem of hard work. Plenty of homeless people work, businesses refusing to pay living wages alongside landlords refusing to charge reasonable rents are two of the biggest factors that cause people to lose housing. Lacking the resources necessary to afford shelter should not be a crime.
Being without housing is not a crime. You are choosing to make it that way. Please act human & prioritize affordable housing & shelters instead.
We have heard from advocates, social workers, non profits that we do NOT have enough beds or housing for the homeless and yet, our city council continues to talk as if we do. It is like watching the king parade with no clothes and yet you are still loudly clamoring that he has some on.
If you want to change this, let's get busy working on low income housing. Let's pass an ordinance that landlords can't leave there properties to sit and rot for years. Let's require they get them back on the market within 6 months or put it up for sale so someone else can. Our city and urban communities are full of JD homes that are allowed to sit, be a source of equity for their company while bringing blight to our community. We have empty lots that owners are allowed to sit for years. Currently living by one- a house burned down 20 years ago and this owner has done nothing with it. It collects trash our kids have to walk by on their way to school. Time to say NO MORE... Get busy making a difference in our city or sell the property to people who will.
We need to be honest about the length of time it is taking for people who qualify for low income housing and have vouchers to find a place to live. We act as if getting a voucher means we get housing. No, often families vouchers expire before they can actually find a house. Let's stop blaming and start working to find nuanced multi layered solutions to a complex program.
You have access to experts in the fields of city planning, economics, and sociology and yet choose to make decisions that solve no problems for anyone in the city for the sake of making it look prettier. If you want to get something done, take action instead of trying to hide the problem.
The zoning within the city is beyond reprehensible and every single time I show it to students of city planning or their teachers they mock us for it and point out how awful it is for people to be so cut off from amenities and work, and that such cutoffs and lengths required to travel only perpetuate these sorts of problems because the individual may be provided work but the commute may also make it difficult, unfeasible, or impossible to get to the workplace. Every single time I talk to anyone from any other city about how we lack shelters yet complain about the problem, they mock us for perpetuating our own problem and pretending we aren’t the cause.
You really think the homeless just don’t want help? Go be put into their shoes. It doesn’t take rocket science to determine most homeless people have mental health issues, went homeless due to mental health issues, and quite literally cannot consent to treatment due to not being in a mental capacity to do so. Address that problem, you morons.
It’s things like this that makes people want to leave Fresno and people like you are supposed to be listening to us.
This ordinance violates the “equal protections of the law” clause of the 14th amendment since only those with full ownership of private property have “protections of the law” while those with mortgages and those who rent (both groups being propertyless workers, called “proletarians”, and lumpen-bourgeoisie such as accountants or lawyers) don’t have “equal protections of the law” since: those with the most property have the most access to lawmaking and law revising bodies, and those who have the least property are able to be jailed for owning or having no access to property. This ordinance also violates the 14th amendment’s “equal protections under the law” clause due to disabled people being at risk of legally being charged for “violating” this ordinance since: type 1 diabetics, among other people with disabilities, may need to “sit down in public spaces or on public properties” to address diabetic health issues or they may end up “lying down in public spaces or on public properties” due to untreated diabetic issues which could then lead to them “sleeping in public spaces or on public properties” in the form of comas — all of which can lead to arrest instead of a preventable, if this ordinance isn’t enacted, physical check up. This ordinance also violates the 1st amendment since the remaining lawful protest methods are suited for able bodied people; and the protest methods of sitting, lying, or sleeping are deprived.
It’s unfair and unkind to arrest a person who is sleeping in a public place.
How could this be a crime?
This will cause unnecessary hardships in the unhoused community.
There is not enough affordable housing for our community.
How can someone ever “bounce back” when the system makes it almost impossible to do so.
I have a stable job and still struggle with housing insecurity due to the rent prices and inflation of costs.
Furthermore not everyone has a support system to help guide them.
Also have you ever accidentally fell asleep on the city bus, imagine going to jail or getting a ticket for this?