Homeless people in Santa Monica could soon be banned from sleeping outdoors as the city considers changing its anti-camping ordinance to comply with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the controversial issue.
The current ordinance prohibits tents and makeshift shelters on public property. The revised ordinance would also prohibit the city’s homeless residents from using blankets, pillows and sleeping bags when sleeping outdoors, exemptions that were added in 2022 to comply with an appeals court ruling.
Santa Monica officials were scheduled to discuss the proposed ordinance and other recommendations at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, but officials postponed the item for discussion possibly as early as next week.
Homeless people have long been drawn to Santa Monica, particularly its boardwalk and beaches where tourists congregate. They have been accused of several headline-grabbing crimes.
Last summer, a man who appeared to be homeless attacked Mayor Phil Brock on the Third Street boardwalk. Brock was a council member at the time of the attack. Last May, a homeless man attacked three people on the same street, stabbing at least two German tourists. The following month, Santa Monica police arrested a homeless man who attacked three people on the beach, including an elderly woman and a 17-year-old girl.
According to the city’s latest census, 774 people are homeless in Santa Monica, a 6% drop from 826 in 2023. At least 62% of the homeless population lives outdoors.
The proposed ordinance Tuesday drew dozens of residents to the Santa Monica council chambers, some of them bringing up the topic early in the meeting.
Resident Wade Kelly told the council during a public comment session that he disagreed with the city’s plan to ban people from sleeping outdoors and addressed the mayor directly about it.
“You’re not standing up for human rights,” Kelly told him.
Brock did not hesitate to respond to his remarks.
“I am indebted to my residents, to our business interests and to the people who need compassion on our street,” he said. “The question is whether [it] “Compassion is letting people die on our streets. I tend to say that’s neglect, not compassion.”
Some residents wrote to elected officials to express their disapproval of the proposed ordinance, including resident Patricia Meyer.
“To simultaneously deny a homeless person a blanket and another place to sleep is both wicked and absurd,” she wrote.
Longtime resident Kathleen Sheldon also wrote to officials, saying that stopping people from sleeping outdoors would not make the homeless problem go away.
“This will simply expose desperate people who have nowhere else to even more inhumane conditions, further endangering their health and safety, and quite possibly their lives,” she wrote. “Please do not give in to the loudest and most hateful voices in our community. Instead, withdraw these cruel and counterproductive proposals and do what is best for our city.”
The proposed ordinance to be considered Tuesday night stems from a July City Council meeting in which Mayor pro tempore Lana Negrete and Councilman Oscar de la Torre asked city staff to “evaluate and propose options to amend the city’s municipal code” to comply with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.
In June, the country’s Supreme Court overturned a decision by the WE 9th Circuit Court of Appeal, known as the Grant Pass decision. This decision states that camping and sleeping orders violate the 8th Amendment by constituting cruel and unusual punishment for people who have no other place to go.
The Supreme Court’s decision overturning the Grant Pass decision meant that cities and counties were free to prohibit people from sleeping or camping on public property, even if there was no available place to go.
Shortly after that decision, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered state agencies to begin clearing homeless encampments from state lands; he urged cities and counties to do the same and threatened to take money away from cities and counties that did not make progress in eliminating homeless encampments.
Last week, the city of Long Beach began enforce its anti-camping laws by giving police wide latitude to issue tickets and make arrests if necessary. City officials also sought to eliminate homeless encampments that posed a threat to public health and safety and prevented people from accessing libraries, parks and beaches. Officials also targeted encampments where people were resistant to services.
In Los Angeles, elected officials said the governor’s order did not change their approach to clearing encampments.
While it’s unclear what officials plan to do in Santa Monica, city staff have also provided them with other recommendations, including taking no action. The city’s anti-camping law currently prohibits tents and makeshift shelters on public property, but allows people to use blankets and pillows while sleeping.
Staff also recommended the city wait and see how other cities address homeless encampments following the Supreme Court decision.
Tuesday’s controversial proposal also came the same night that city officials were considering buying a commercial building on the 1400 block of Wilshire Boulevard to be used for a permanent supportive housing project.
Many residents living around the proposed site have come forward to denounce the project, saying it would make their neighborhood more dangerous and less attractive to buyers while impacting businesses.
“We need to do something to help the homeless,” apartment owner Mary Stewart told the city council. “It won’t do much, but it will do a lot of damage to the neighborhood with no benefit to anyone.”
She and many other residents said they would accept the project as long as the tenants were low-income seniors.
George Guttman echoed that sentiment, but also made an additional suggestion to city leaders.
“If you’re going to build low-income housing, hopefully you can put families in there so they can benefit from our excellent school system.”
