Eureka Police Department react to potential Public Camping Ordinance update

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EUREKA, CA. (KIEM)- Until further notice, the Eureka Police Department will no longer cite individuals for sleeping in public places. This is a result of a Court Of Appeals ruling aimed to decriminalize people who sleep on public property, when they had no alternative shelter access available. Our Dru Miller brings us a local law enforcement perspective on the issue.

Because this issue is not so easy to solve, the Eureka Police Department is continuing to work with groups like the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, Eureka’s Rescue Mission, the Betty Chinn Foundation, and the Eureka Community Service Department, to connect people with necessary services and resources available in our county.

Public Camping Ordinances Update Provided by Eureka Police Department:

    ~November 2018

Judicious analysis of the Martin v. Boise ruling will likely lead to amendment of the Eureka Municipal Code. Until then, continued prosecution of the City’s public camping-related and sit-lie ordinances could lead to liability for the City of Eureka.  If it stands, this case could have a significant impact on municipalities with substantial homeless populations and inadequate or insufficient homeless shelter facilities. As a result, following the Martin ruling Eureka Police officers are provisionally no longer citing individuals for sleeping in public spaces under EMC 93.02 (camping prohibited) and EMC 93.03 (unlawful habitation in autos/trailers). This limited suspension of enforcement may continue until such time as the City’s ordinances and policies have been ensured to comply with this court decision.

What We Are Doing

• The City Attorney’s Office is actively working with staff to review and expeditiously bring an amended camping ordinance(s) before the City Council.

• The Eureka Police Department (EPD) is nearing completion of a comprehensive unsheltered homeless survey within our jurisdiction designed to help the City and community service providers better understand and address the fundamental issues associated with the state of homelessness in Eureka.

• EPD continues to track shelter space availability within the City of Eureka (including emergency overflow options). Most nights there have been beds available for individuals in need.

• The City is in the process of hiring a qualified professional consultant to conduct an independent inventory and analysis of all homeless shelter providers located within the city limits.

• The City is also working with a tech firm to develop a free mobile phone app called “The Eureka Shelter Finder.” The purpose of the app is to inform interested persons about the location and availability of shelter beds currently available in the city.

• Eureka continues to closely partner with the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services and other community stakeholders and service providers through our innovative Mobile Intervention and Services Team (MIST). MIST endeavors to balance enforcement with compassionate outreach to the homeless and linkage to services. EPD is increasingly moving toward this collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to addressing homeless issues. 
• The City is in the process of launching its new homeless resource and support program, “UPLIFT Eureka.” This program will guide homeless people to existing resources and work programs in the community with the assistance of volunteer “co-pilots” who will serve as advocates for the participants as they work their way to success.  EPD is also working in partnership with UPLIFT Eureka to create a homeless diversion component to the program in lieu of referral to the criminal justice system and prosecution or fines for minor offenses.

• Martin v. Boise further illuminates the critical need for more affordable housing and safe, legal shelter options in Humboldt County. Eureka is making progress on this issue but others still need to contribute more.

• In addition to the City’s ongoing support for Betty Chinn’s Blue Angel Village, which shelters up to 40 chronically homeless people at a time while offering intensive case management services aimed at transitioning them into permanent housing solutions, the City is actively working in partnership with Chinn to establish a second homeless transitional housing facility using donated PG&E trailers.

• EPD will continue to clean-up illegal camps. Nobody has the right to litter in public, destroy property, trespass, create a public health or safety hazard, obstruct the flow of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, or interfere with rights of others to use public areas for their intended purposes. There is a distinction between the act of sleeping and setting up or remaining at a “campsite” on public property (or public right-of-way) for purposes of dwelling in that particular place.

• Boise does not apply to enforcement on private property or to particular times and locations where access to public property is restricted.

• Even before the Martin decision, it has been EPD procedure that officers generally will not take enforcement action for prohibited camping in public spaces between 9:00 PM and 6:00 AM absent extenuating circumstances. Our patrol responses to this issue are largely complaint-driven. 

• EPD is responsible for preventing crime and maintaining law and order within the city by enforcing the laws of the U.S., the state, and city. It is also EPD’s duty to promote the public health and safety by helping the city maintain public areas in clean, sanitary and accessible condition. Officers will continue to respond to and investigate complaints including assessing the occurrence of other possible law violations.

• Other Eureka Municipal Codes and California Penal Codes were not affected by Martin and will still be used to enforce crime, disorder and quality of life issues in our city, including: