Sherman R. Frederick
Marinscope
Why revamp the city’s camping rules? Novato made it clear when Mayor Pat Eklund said it was to clean out the tent city that took over Lee Gerner Park during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the pandemic is now fundamentally over in California and the nation, homeless encampments remain and confound cities in Marin, from Sausalito to San Rafael. Novato is pushing back: “The city is committed to do what we can to reduce encampments,” the mayor said on May 25. To show what she meant, she invited citizens to stick around past the public comment period and hear all about the city’s proposed new anti-camping laws.
Those new laws came into being on June 8 when the Novato City Council unanimously approved two new city laws scheduled to go into effect on July 9. They are designed to stop overnight camping throughout most of the city.
It does this by banning camping and camping paraphernalia within 50 feet of areas deemed “critical infrastructure.” As a general rule, critical infrastructure includes City Hall and other government buildings and utilities.
The city believes the new law will pass Constitutional muster in the courts. Critics say Mayor Eklund and the city will get its head handed to it in federal court.
Lucie Hollingsworth of Legal Aid of Marin, for example, told the council flat-out that the “ordinances are unconstitutional as written.” She accused the council members of being “punitive” by levying fines on the unhoused and keeping them “in poverty.”
“You can’t criminalize homelessness,” she said.
The National Homelessness Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., agreed and predicted the new law won’t survive court scrutiny.
“Criminalizing camping in Novato undermines Novato’s work to serve people experiencing homelessness,” Tristia Bauman wrote.
Homeless advocate Jason Sarris, who lives at Lee Gerner Park, told the Council that their new ordinances were blatant work-arounds to federal law.
“The new camping ban ordinance the city will impose, is being implemented with a cold heart and a blind eye,” he said at the meeting. “Going to sleep at night with the knowledge of being woken up, ticketed and possibly arrested is fearful and demoralizing.”
Sarris, who has said he is going to run for the Marin County Board of Supervisor, said the Lee Gerner encampment “has given it’s folks the chance at life again. A year to lick our wounds and heal the bitter blows dealt in life. A year to remember the forgotten joys of life and smile. And a year to escape the grasp of systemic harassment that’s reared its ugly head against poor people.”
He added that “You can take our freedom away but you cannot take our will to live like everyone else in this country. I am optimistic the City of Novato is going to fall flat on their face, with their flimsy, unconstitutional ordinance.”
Suzanne Walker on social media wrote after the decision that “Today I am once again ashamed to live in Novato. where apparently humanity is in short supply.”
The Council also took criticism from Novato residents who want the Lee Gerner Park encampment removed.
Nancy Abruzzo who is part of an organized group of citizens pushing the city to do something about the encampment told the mayor that she didn’t think the ordinance was strong enough or go far enough to protect private businesses in the area of the park.
Private businesses were “thrown under the bus” by the ordinance, she said. But city workers will be spared being harassed and having to step over the homeless by the new law. “How long is it going to take to clear the camp at Lee Gerner Park. I want to know the bottom line — are you going to clear the park and when?”
But others who have been waging war to stop the homeless from polluting the park and Novato Creek from human feces and garbage, praised the council for action that “is long overdue.”
“We are thrilled that the Council responded to over 2,000 petition signatures, hundreds of phone calls and emails, and to Zoom participation by dozens of Community activists determined to clean up the environmentally sensitive area. Homeless individuals were endangering the River Otter from the human filth, garbage, and open air drug dealing, as well as the sex offenders who are living in tents in this area,” according to Tief Gibbs, a small business owner who has coordinated a pushback against the City Council.
Gibbs added that “The Martin v. Boise Supreme Court decision was left vague about where homeless individuals may reside, but it doesn’t give the squatters the right to live on public property, especially with young children exposed to criminal activity near the Novato Public Library. The City Council is doing the right thing by clearing out the camp, but we will be monitoring the results and if we don’t see action by July 9th, we will be back protesting in full force.”
The activists also said that they are ready to help the homeless directly affected by the Council ruling to find alternative housing and long term solutions.
Nancy Abruzzo said her protests against the homeless in the park “was never about a lack of compassion for these individuals. We are just amazed that anyone believes that living outdoors and facing the exposure of heat and cold is a sensible solution. We want real alternatives for the less fortunate, particularly the drug addicted and those suffering from mental health issues.”
City Attorney Jeff Walter characterized the new laws as “striking a balance” on the issue.
Federal law allows sleeping in public spaces when no beds are available. But the new laws would prohibit camping in areas that need protection, such as waterways and habitat in danger of wildfires.
The city should designate a safe camping area for the homeless.
It’s not right what the City of Novato is doing . Kicking them out and leaving no alternative and possibly face fines and imprisonment for not having a designated place to sleep at night. We are suppose to help each other in this world not kick a man when he is down . The city of Novato is doing just that.