Less than four weeks after the Supreme Court issued its ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order ordering state authorities to dismantle homeless encampments across the state.
The ordinance has had little impact in Tulare County so far, although the Supreme Court decision in Visalia will likely lead to a new ordinance, city officials said.
Two contradictory legal decisions
On September 14, 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Martin v. City of Boise that the “cruel and unusual punishment” clause of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevents cities from enforcing criminal restrictions on public camping unless the person has “access to adequate temporary accommodations.”
The ruling meant that cities were not allowed to criminalize homelessness and, as a result, law enforcement had fewer options for dealing with homeless encampments.
“If there were not enough low-access shelters for homeless people in this particular jurisdiction that could be used voluntarily, then you could not criminalize them for sleeping in parks, for example,” Tulare City Attorney Mario Zamora explained at the July 16 Tulare City Council meeting. “The rationale was essentially that there was no other place for them to go, and that resulted in cruel and unusual punishment under the United States Constitution.”
However, in its June 28, 2024, decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, which essentially overturned the Ninth Circuit Court’s decision, the Supreme Court held that enforcing generally applicable laws regulating camping on public lands does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
The Supreme Court ruled that Grants Pass’s camping ordinances do not criminalize public camping status. Instead, the ordinances prohibit anyone’s actions.
No changes in the city of Tulare
Tulare’s existing camping ordinance, which prohibits camping in certain city parks, “is certainly legal at this point,” Zamora said at the city council meeting, adding that the city does not need to take any action as a result of the ruling.
Patrick Isherwood, Tulare’s deputy mayor, spoke about the “sensitivity surrounding targeted attacks” and urged caution to ensure that no ordinance or measure is directed against a specific class or group of people.
“If our rule as a community is that camping is prohibited, then it applies to the whole community,” he said. “The same rule applies to everyone. So if I’m drunk or I tripped and slept in a park, that’s still a violation of the camping ban, just as it would apply if you’re homeless. Our ordinance is not just a violation if you’re homeless.”
Council member Stephen Harrell said Tulare’s model is being reviewed by other communities, which shows Tulare is on the right track and the city should continue down that path.
The city council decided not to take any action.
Visalia considers regulation
At its Aug. 5 meeting, the Visalia City Council debated an ordinance that would amend the city’s municipal code to eliminate exceptions for overnight camping and lot storage in parks and on trails. If passed, this ordinance would mean that Visalia parks would be closed to everyone at the end of each day.
The proposal met with mixed reactions.
“This change in the ordinance gives us a new tool, but its scope is very limited because it simply gives us a new tool to address the issue of overnight camping in the parks and on the trails,” said Visalia Police Chief Jason Salazar. “It does not change how we have been able and what we have done to enforce tent encampments on private or public property and other locations in the city, or what we have been able to do to enforce the existing rules in the parks during the day.”
“Unlike many other communities, we have already prevented the existence of large, long-term encampments through our existing efforts and the resources we already have available,” he added. “So is this going to have a significant impact on the issues related to homelessness in Visalia? I don’t think it will.”
During the council discussion that followed public comments against the ordinance, Council Member Emmanuel Hernandez Soto spoke out against the proposal, saying, “We are not fixing anything here.
“I would suggest that we open something like the warming center (which is currently only open on cold nights) and keep it open year-round,” he said, adding that the warming center could be used “until we find a permanent location.”
Council member Steve Nelsen took a different view, urging others to focus on what he described as the root causes of homelessness: alcohol and drug addiction, mental health problems and “bad luck.”
“The reality is that the family dynamic is broken,” he said. “It used to be that the family took care of the family. That’s gone. They’re kicking them out of the house. They’re letting someone else take care of it, in this case the state.”
“This is nothing more than a symbolic gesture to say that we will follow the Boise decision,” Nelsen said, before asking rhetorically, “Will anything change?”
The other council members reported on their experiences working with the homeless and their involvement in programs that help the homeless find housing and treatment.
The regulation was adopted in first reading by 4 votes to 1. The final decision will be taken at the next meeting.
No impact on the district
“There weren’t a lot of ordinances on our books to deal with homelessness,” Tulare County Executive Dennis Townsend said of homelessness, adding that the county “pretty much just followed state law when it came to removing someone from a homeless camp.”
“When you take someone out of a homeless camp, you have to be able to house them somewhere else. That’s why we’ve been very focused on creating all these different facilities,” he said.
Townsend mentioned facilities such as The Neighborhood Village, the supportive housing facility for the chronically homeless in the county planned by the organization Salt + Light, which is scheduled to open September 26.
“As a county, we have acquired some homeless housing facilities so that when we have to relocate people, they have a place to go,” Townsend said, adding that it was “almost a bit of a setback for the county in general because we’re already prepared for this with our future plans, so we haven’t had to adjust too much.”
The county is currently converting the former Casa Grande senior care home in Visalia into an as-yet-unnamed project that will provide temporary housing for homeless individuals with specific health issues. The facility will house 96 people.
“We already have temporary and permanent assisted living throughout the country, but this is an addition,” he said.
The Tulare County Sheriff’s Department has also taken a “proactive approach,” according to Ashley Schwarm, the sheriff’s media relations representative.
Schwarm explained that tackling homelessness requires a multi-faceted approach, including economic policies to create affordable housing, improved access to health and social services, and community support systems that provide a safety net for those affected in crisis situations.
“Long before Governor Newsom’s homeless encampment order, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office had developed a number of strategies to help our homeless population in the county,” she said. “We have developed a long-term, multi-resource approach with our homeless team that allows us to work with homeless individuals and provide them with the resources they need to get help.”
“We have basically already implemented the governor’s orders on our own,” she said.
