The Riverside City Council moved Tuesday evening to outlaw encampments near schools, homeless shelters and parks.
The ordinance was proposed after a June U.S. Supreme Court decision, City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, which allows local governments to arrest people camping on public property, even when there are no shelter spaces available for them.
The council voted 6-1 Tuesday evening, Oct. 22, to amend the city code. Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes opposed the change.
“We should do more and that is our responsibility as public servants, as individuals … to look out for each other, to take care of each other,” Cervantes said at the meeting. “This, to me, is not bringing any of that to the table, and instead, it’s harming people more, that are already in a very challenging place.”
The ordinance makes it unlawful to camp on public property, including within two blocks of elementary, middle and high schools; within two blocks of homeless shelters with signs prohibiting camping, in city parks with signs prohibiting camping, and within areas where urban and rural land meet, like the Santa Ana River Basin, according to a city report on the ordinance.
In 2022, Riverside County reported in the Point-in-Time Count, a bi-annual canvass of residents without permanent housing, that the city had 514 unsheltered homeless individuals.
A notice to clean up and remove encampments will be left on encampments, giving homeless individuals up to 24 hours to gather their belongings before city crews arrive and clear out the area.
Critics of the city code changes said the amendments were insensitive to homeless individuals, but Councilmember Jim Perry said his constituents expect him to support public safety and the ordinance “is a step in the right direction.”
“Within the ordinance itself, it talks about the urgency ordinance to prohibit camping, sleeping and maintenance of encampments in the city,” Perry added, “while encouraging people experiencing homelessness to to use available low-barrier shelters and access to a variety of services from the city and its partners.”
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The purpose of the ordinance is to “protect public health, safety, and welfare of city residents including the unsheltered population, businesses, visitors, and city personnel including first responders,” according to the report prepared for the council.
The ordinance goes into effect immediately, with no fiscal impact, according to city officials.
Several audience members spoke on the item Tuesday, causing the meeting to run late into the evening. Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson limited speakers to two minutes each in an effort to save time.
“If we can pass an urgency ordinance against camping on public property, we can pass an urgency ordinance to repurpose vacant facilities for crisis housing,” speaker Chris Oberg said.
In 2023, 241 shelter beds were added countywide, 31 of them in the city, but advocates say more needs to be done.
“This ordinance inappropriately affects the systematically disadvantaged,” speaker Nathan Kemp said.
The council took some heat from the audience following its vote — “Shame on all of you,” an audience member shouted, “morally bankrupt.” — prompting Councilmember Sean Mill to ask the crowd to show some respect.
