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CA City Making It A Crime To Aid Or Abet An Homeless Encampment

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As California communities ban homeless encampments, one Bay Area city is trying to go a step further. The East Bay city of Fremont is set to vote on a new ordinance that would make it illegal to camp on any street or sidewalk, in any park or on any other public property. In an apparent California first, it also would make anyone “causing, permitting, aiding, abetting or concealing” an illegal encampment guilty of a misdemeanor – and possibly subject to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail, reports CalMatters. That unusual prohibition — the latest in a series of crackdowns by communities after a Supreme Court decision last summer — has alarmed activists who worry it could be used against aid workers who provide services to people living in encampments. While Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan said police won’t target outreach workers handing out food and clothing, the ordinance doesn’t specify what qualifies as “aiding, abetting or concealing.”


Experts say the city could enforce the same ordinance against ordinary citizens in contact with what the ordinance defines as an illegal homeless encampment. The broad language has left Vivian Wan of Abode Services, “very fearful,” she said. As the city’s primary nonprofit homeless services provider, Abode regularly sends outreach workers into encampments to help people sign up for housing and shelter, pass out information about food pantries and other services, hand out coats during cold spells, and more. “The job’s hard enough,” Wan said. “I can’t imagine doing the hard work that’s both physically and emotionally draining and then also have to be worried about your own legal liability. It’s incredibly frustrating.” Fremont’s proposed ordinance, which passed an initial city council vote 4-2 and is set for a final vote on Feb. 11, is part of a statewide trend toward more punitive anti-homelessness measures. Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled cities can ban camping on all public property, even if they have no shelter beds available. Since then, more than two dozen California cities and counties have passed measures banning camps or limiting where people can camp, brought back previously unenforced ordinances, or updated existing camping ordinances to make them more punitive.




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