Homeless Right to Sleep campaign to nix anti-camping laws FWD
Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Sun, 18 Jan 1998 19:56:47 -0800 (PST)
NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION: HOMELESS RIGHT TO SLEEP fwd
*REPUBLISH AND REPOST FREELY
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JANUARY 16, 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The American Homeless Society (AHS) has joined
Burnside Cadillac's Portland, Oregon campaign, to
repeal the city's inhumane no "camping" ordinance
that outlaws homeless men, women and children from
sleeping in city limits, despite their being turned
away from local shelters, due to lack of room and beds.
Santa Claus and the "peace and goodwill" spirit of
the holiday season are gone, as America must once again return to
reality. El Nino is unmercifully lashing out at the homeless throughout
the country, local and state politicians are returning to their
anti-homeless rhetoric and proposals, and the White House is now
referring concerned citizen requests for homeless assistance back to the
states.
The rich and well-to-do continue to complain about the visibility of the
homeless in their cities and counties throughout the nation, while
well-funded "homeless agencies" do little or nothing, to stop these grave
injustices. If anyone is going to do something, it is those of us reading
this NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION here and now.
The American Homeless Society calls on concerned citizens throughout the
United States, to research city and county laws negatively affecting
local homeless in your respective areas, and to organize to amend or
repeal these unjust laws.
Persons interested in organizing a local drive, to amend or repeal these
discriminatory ordinances in your area may contact AHS, at:
sananda@hotmail.com
To establish a chapter of the American Homeless Society for your state
or area, today, visit:
http://members.tripod.com/~sananda/homeless/ahs1.html
Dr. Ruben Botello
GLOBAL HOMELESS NETWORK
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FROM PORTLAND, OREGON
Campaign for Legal Places to Sleep (CLPS)
By Sharon Pearson <bcad@teleport.com>
The woman is sleeping, sitting up while her partner
keeps a tired but watchful eye. She is fortunate to
have someone to look out for her because
she has no housing and no bed in which to sleep.
She is also in danger of receiving a ticket by
Portland police who act to enforce Portland's
Anti-Camping Ordinance, even when shelters are full.
This attitude, that homeless people should sleep
sitting up, be kept moving around the city and not
allowed to stay in one spot, is common: the city of
Portland has criminalized homelessness.
The anti-camping ordinance makes it illegal to "set
up, and to remain in or at a campsite." A campsite
is defined as "any place where bedding, sleeping
bag, or other sleeping matter, or stove or fire, is
placed, established or maintained, whether or not
such place incorporates the use of any tent,
lean-to, shack or any other structure of any
vehicle."
It is illegal in the city of Portland "For any
person to camp in or upon any sidewalk, street,
alley, lane, public right of way, or any other place
to which the general public has access, or under any
bridgeway or viaduct." The city's got it covered.
For doing any of the above, upon conviction, a
homeless camper could be fined up to $100, jailed
for up to 30 days, or both.
Since the anti-camping ordinance was passed by the
city council in l981, the Portland Police have made
numerous sweeps of homeless campsites to drive
homeless people from Portland. There certainly
aren't enough shelter beds for people living in
camps.
People would have to leave their mates to use the
shelters and people with dogs and cats would have to
get rid of their pets. Shelters are temporary,
dirty, over-crowded and sometimes people are forced
to sleep on the bare concrete floor of the shelter.
People living in shelters have to take their
possessions with them during the day. You are
probably familiar with many of these and other
problems.
Still, the city continues to pursue the
money-wasting and futile attempts to move people
from camps. After a sweep, campers move back;
sometimes that very day.
We are looking for people to help us with our
Campaign for Legal Places to Sleep that begins
December 23, l997. Phone us to
volunteer:503-228-5657.
We need strong leaders since the lives of homeless
people are at stake. If you are a reader of the
Burnside Cadillac, you may be aware that we have
reported the deaths of two people crushed to death
in dumpsters and we speculate the people were in the
dumpsters to avoid being ticketed by Portland
police.
If you can help with making copies of documents and
mailing them out, that would be wonderful! Our
staff is already over-worked. The following
represents what we hope to accomplish:
1. Repeal the Anti-Camping Ordinance.
2. Establish public campgrounds with sliding scale,
fees; the higher fees to help cover the costs for
low-income and homeless individuals and
families.
3. Establish year-round camp grounds for homeless
people; large enough for all who need them, with
tenant input on decisions, adequate sanitary
facilities, utilities, community buildings, child
care facilities and playgrounds.
4. Establish immediate "safe zones" on certain
streets and/or in certain public places that would
be exempt from the Camping Ban, prior to its ban.
5. Obtain zoning changes so property owners could
invite homeless people to camp on their property.
Repealing the Anti-Camping Ban and making safe
zones and campgrounds are only stop-gap measures to
protect our homeless citizens now. Affordable
housing is an ultimate goal that will not be
accomplished in time to save lives; if it is ever
accomplished.
We hope to gather ten thousand signatures by March
1, 1998. At such time we will appeal to our local
government to act and if such action is not
forthcoming, we will reluctantly initiate a campaign of civil
disobedience with camp-ins and/or sit-ins.
Two local organizations have already committed to
assist this campaign and we hope for many more.
Please contact Sharon Pearson with the Burnside
Cadillac at 503-228-5657 and leave a message. We
only have one phone for both the newspaper and The
Bridge School, so we hope you will be patient!
We'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Remember, your help with this campaign could save
one life, and if one life is saved, that life is
enough reward for all of our efforts.
Sharon Pearson
BURNSIDE CADILLAC
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GLOBAL HOMELESS NETWORK
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<http://members.tripod.com/~sananda/homeless/welcome.html>
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TITLE 17 USC 107: "Spread the News!"
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<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml>
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