ALERT: Homeless protest Sacremento busts of squatter camps - CA,

Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Fri, 12 Nov 1999 18:47:09 -0800 (PST) 

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Can protesting at state houses help to end homelessness, squat evictions
and "street sweeps"?  Why or why not?  If so, under what conditions?

http://www.sacbee.com/news/news/local03_19991112.html
FWD  [California, USA]  Sacremento Bee - November 12, 1999

     HOMELESS PROTEST CITY'S CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL CAMPS

     By Matthew Barrows
     Bee Staff Writer

Waving American flags and signs that read "Homelessness is not a crime,"
more than 100 homeless people and their supporters gathered Thursday on the
steps of the Capitol to protest the crackdown that is landing many of the
homeless in jail.

   Atop their list of complaints are local illegal camping laws. Homeless
advocates say the laws -- which prohibit camping or sleeping along
sidewalks, in parks or along the rivers -- essentially make being down on
your luck a criminal offense.

   "If you smell like a campfire, you're going to jail in Sacramento," said
a man dressed in a tie-dyed shirt, black jeans and muddy boots who called
himself Hippie Vince.

   What Vince and his mates have run into is part of a nationwide trend
that has turned frustration over aggressive panhandling, public drunkenness
and illegal encampments into stern new laws designed to sweep streets clear
of vagrants. Local lawmakers have said years of social programs have failed
to yield results. Now it's time to get tough.

   Some cities are buying one-way bus tickets for people who live on the
streets. In Marysville, "Dumpster diving" has been declared a crime. In
Roseville, police go undercover to nab panhandlers.

   And against a backdrop of protest from homeless advocates, San Francisco
police last month threatened to seize shopping carts used by the homeless
and dump the contents into plastic bags.

   In Sacramento, the issue is illegal camping.

   Hippie Vince said while local authorities once targeted encampments
along the American River, they are now coming down hard on illegal campers
throughout the city. Vince said he's gone to jail twice on illegal camping
charges.

   "It's gotten to a point where people can't enjoy themselves on the
river," he said. "It's a war zone."

   Local authorities said the crackdown should come as no surprise.

   For two years, Sacramento police have driven a four-wheel-drive vehicle
up and down the American River Parkway, giving homeless campers a list of
shelters and resources as well as a warning that if they resist, the result
could be jail time, said Capt. Jim Hyde.

   Hyde said the people who are ending up behind bars typically have been
cited several times in the past.

   "To be honest," he said, "it's the population that is resistant to change."

   In 1995, police handed out 20 illegal camping tickets. Over the last
four years, that number has grown to more than 2,500, most of which result
from nighttime "sweeps" along the American River.

   Hyde said the Police Department gets complaints from neighbors whose
homes border parks, from bicyclists who are scared to ride the American
River Parkway and from business owners who say it's impossible to attract
customers when someone is sleeping beside the doorway or hitting up patrons
for change as soon as they step outside.

   The campsites -- usually shared by three or four people -- also produce
huge volumes of garbage and human waste, officials said. According to the
Sacramento County Park Rangers Service, more than 15 tons of trash was
removed from abandoned camps this summer.

   But homeless advocates Thursday said it was unfair and illegal to target
people just because they're unwanted.

   Max Biddle, one of the speakers at Thursday's protest, likened
conditions to Nazi Germany or apartheid-era South Africa. "We're going
backwards," said Biddle, a local advocate for the homeless. "We're going
back to the old days of taking away the rights of the homeless."

   Others said the fact that cities and towns are using their police forces
to solve homeless problems is an indication the system that was designed to
help these people has broken down.

   Mayoral candidate Julie Padilla said the "government-sanctioned
harassment" could be averted if affordable housing were more readily
available.

   Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who spoke at a Veterans Day
ceremony earlier in the day, said too many people on the streets suffer
from mental problems and too many teenagers and young adults wind up
homeless when they outgrow the state's foster-care system.

   The Bee recently completed a four-day series about the challenges of
four runaway teenagers living on Sacramento's streets.

    Steinberg said that a bill he introduced earlier this year addresses
some of the issues raised in the series.

   The bill is designed primarily to keep the mentally ill from becoming
homeless. A stronger mental health system in the state, he said, not only
would save people from a life on the streets but also would save local
police and sheriff's deputies from having to enforce these tough measures.

   "The problem is falling too much in the hands of law enforcement," he
said. "That's not law enforcement's fault. They should be the last resort."

END FORWARD

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