The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to assist a movement affirming that its jails received’t be used to carry homeless individuals arrested within the enforcement of anticamping ordinances.
The five-member board reaffirmed the method, which county officers have stated is already in impact. The transfer got here days after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered state companies to take away homeless encampments of their jurisdictions and inspired cities to do the identical, citing the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s Grants Move ruling, which cleared the best way for extra aggressive enforcement of anticamping legal guidelines.
“We’re not going to go to a race to the underside,” stated Supervisor Hilda Solis, the movement’s co-author. “We’re not going to show our backs. We’re not going to make use of our jails to by some means incarcerate and criminalize people who find themselves on the road.”
Co-author Supervisor Lindsey Horvath barely amended the unique movement to make clear that it’s meant to handle how the county handles arrests “solely on account of enforcement of anticamping ordinances,” in keeping with the county’s present observe.
Somebody who’s endangering public security or committing different crimes at an encampment may nonetheless be arrested and jailed, she stated.
“We aren’t saying that if there’s violent crime occurring at a homeless encampment that that isn’t an arrestable offense,” Horvath stated. “We aren’t saying something like that in any respect. The truth is, what we’re being clear about is that we’re not criminalizing poverty or homelessness.”
An individual sleeps on their belongings on the seashore in Venice earlier this month.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Instances)
In the course of the assembly Tuesday, which additionally included a broader dialogue on the affect of the Grants Move ruling on the county, native officers repeatedly stated they didn’t imagine that arresting and jailing homeless residents for dwelling in encampments would result in a discount in homelessness.
“Criminalization is deliberately not a part of the county’s framework as a result of it makes the issue worse by creating extra limitations alongside individuals’s path to housing,” stated Va Lecia Adams Kellum, chief government of the Los Angeles Homeless Providers Authority.
Sheriff Robert Luna stated the movement is in keeping with the division’s present method, through which misdemeanors don’t usually result in jailing until particular standards are met.
“Being homeless just isn’t against the law, and we are going to keep our give attention to prison conduct slightly than a person’s standing,” Luna stated.
A number of pubic audio system expressed assist for the movement and for the county’s broader “care first” method to homelessness.
“Being homeless shouldn’t be against the law,” stated West Covina Mayor Brian Calderón Tabatabai. “All of us have to be clear that all of us have a duty to offer shelter to our unhoused residents.”
However some additionally expressed frustration with the tempo of the county’s efforts to maneuver individuals out of encampments and into momentary housing and stated that native communities want extra sources to handle the housing disaster.
“Clearly nobody is advocating that our unhoused group members be housed within the county jail. Nevertheless, cities are overwhelmed with homelessness wants and the proliferation of encampments of their communities,” stated Bea Dieringer, president of the Los Angeles County Division of the League of California Cities. “They desperately want the county’s assist to extend homeless shelters, providers and different sources to satisfy their pressing group wants.”
The county this yr has dedicated greater than $120 million to its Pathway House program, its counterpart to Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Protected housing and encampment cleanup program.
Supervisors and several other audio system additionally expressed concern that the governor’s order and the Supreme Court docket’s choice may result in a difficult mishmash of insurance policies throughout the county’s 88 cities and unincorporated communities through which some cities find yourself pushing homeless residents into neighboring communities.
The movement additionally directs the county to assist lead a convening of cities “with the objective of minimizing disparate affect of the Grants Move ruling throughout all of the jurisdictions within the County.”
“We don’t need L.A. County to be seen as rolling out the welcome mat for the nation’s unhoused inhabitants to return to Los Angeles,” Horvath stated, “and there’s additionally concern that we don’t wish to diverge from the trail we’ve seen that works.”
