(City News Service)- The ordinance, passed on June 27 and signed into law by Mayor Todd Gloria on June 29, prohibits tent encampments in all public spaces throughout the city if shelter beds are available.
It also bans tent encampments at all times in certain sensitive areas — parks, canyons and near schools, transit stations and homeless shelters — regardless of shelter capacity.
”As the Unsafe Camping Ordinance takes effect, I encourage unsheltered people to take advantage of our new safe sleeping site or available shelter beds,” said City Councilman Stephen Whitburn, who introduced the ordinance. ”These options are much safer and healthier than living on sidewalks or in parks.
”I also look forward to all San Diegans having safer and healthier neighborhoods where public areas are used for their intended purposes,” he added. ”Together, we can improve the quality of life in communities across San Diego.”
The council passed the controversial ordinance 5-4, with Gloria and Whitburn being strong advocates.
Critics say it criminalizes homelessness and won’t solve the greater causes of the social problem.
Under an amendment by Councilwoman Marni Von Wilpert, the ordinance would not take effect until 30 days after the first safe sleeping lot was opened on 20th and B streets, to allow non-law enforcement social workers to be the first contact with homeless people.
According to the city, ”education, outreach and enforcement will begin immediately,” after the law goes into effect.
How that will be enforced remains somewhat murky. Officers in the SDPD’s Neighborhood Policing Division have been trained in a progressive enforcement model and will ”continue to provide education and outreach to homeless residents about the ordinance,” a spokesperson from Whitburn’s office said.
Gloria has intimated that enforcement will begin closest to schools and shelters and expand outward.
With city taxpayers funding more than $200 million to provide homelessness services, ”it is right and appropriate for us to set the expectation that people experiencing homelessness must avail themselves of the services we are providing,” Gloria said. ”Enforcement of the ordinance will coincide with bringing online hundreds more shelter opportunities through our Safe Sleeping program and my pursuit of measures to cut bureaucratic red tape to speed our homelessness response.”
Those who voted no on the ordinance were Council President Sean Elo- Rivera and his colleagues Kent Lee, Monica Montgomery Steppe and Vivian Moreno. The four also voted against the ordinance on its first reading June 13.