Activists for the Homeless See Santa Barbara as Their Selma
On one side is homeless activist Mitch Snyder, who promises to mount a massive Labor Day demonstration in the city he says is as critical to the struggle of the homeless as Selma, Ala., was to the civil rights movement.
Snyder, who is based in Washington, D.C., accuses Santa Barbara of being “the worst city in the country” in its treatment of the homeless, and as proof points to the municipal ordinance against overnight sleeping in public places.
Opposing him are local merchant groups, who support the ban on public sleeping and have matched Snyder’s rhetorical flourishes.
George Velliotes, co-founder of the Old Town Merchants Assn., called Snyder “the self-appointed Mussolini of the masses.” Agreeing to change the law would be like “giving in to Hitler” he said.
As the Sept. 1 holiday approaches, city officials are scrambling to avoid a confrontation that would give Santa Barbara, a city of 78,000 that depends on tourism for much of its economy, unflattering national attention. An ordinance to end the sleeping ban has been drafted and the City Council is scheduled to vote on it Tuesday.
Protest March Threatened
Snyder, who has earned nationwide publicity as an outspoken advocate for the homeless and was the subject of a flattering television biography, has warned that unless the law is repealed he is prepared to lead more than 1,000 homeless marchers from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara to defy the anti-sleeping ban and subject themselves to mass arrest.
“If you were to pick one city in the country to be a model of how not to deal with its homeless, Santa Barbara would be it,” Snyder said in a telephone interview from the Washington headquarters of his lobbying organization, the Community for Creative Nonviolence. “The atmosphere and attitude of real hostility toward the homeless in Santa Barbara is unparalleled.”
But city officials and even Santa Barbara’s homeless say that Snyder is off base. They suggest that Snyder was drawn to Santa Barbara by its proximity to President Reagan’s ranch and the attendant publicity value.
The city has a progressive low-income housing program, homeless activists say, and donates more money to social service groups that help the homeless and the poor than many cities its size. And although Snyder claimed that Santa Barbara is the only city in the country with “a blanket anti-sleeping ban,” about a quarter of the cities in the state enforce comparable ordinances, according to Rob Rosenthal, co-founder of the Santa Barbara Homeless Coalition.
But a series of well-publicized confrontations with street people has contributed to the city’s reputation as being inhospitable to the homeless. And while other cities may also prohibit public sleeping, Santa Barbara police have been more zealous in enforcing the law, according to Willard Hastings of the Legal Defense Center of Santa Barbara. During an 18-month period ending last May, Santa Barbara Police cited 1,058 people--about 15% of whom were also arrested--for sleeping or camping on public or private property.
Nearby coastal cities such as Carpinteria and Ventura also enforce ordinances against public sleeping. But police spokesmen in the two cities said officers rarely cite or arrest people for the offense, and instead usually just ask them to move along.
‘Old West Sheriff’s Approach’
Hastings said that “social service and affordable housing programs here are fulfilling more than their fair share,” but added, “Santa Barbara is taking all this heat because of the enforcement of this antiquated, stupid sleeping law. They’ve got the Old West sheriff’s approach of trying to run these people out of town.”
Santa Barbara Police Lt. Don Williams, the department spokesman, denied that police “beat the bushes” looking for sleeping transients. The majority of the citations--the fine is $85 for sleeping in public--Williams said, result from complaints by residents. And those who are arrested usually have been cited a number of times and could not pay their fines, subjecting them to arrest warrants, Williams said.
While Santa Barbara has the reputation of being an elitist beach town with an income level comparable to Malibu or La Jolla or Palm Beach, such descriptions are really more applicable to neighboring communities such as Montecito and Hope Ranch. The median household income in Santa Barbara of about $15,000 is well below the state average of $18,000 and the city is almost 25% Latino, according to 1980 census figures.
The perception that Santa Barbara does nothing for the homeless or the poor is unfair, said Donald Olson, the city’s housing development supervisor. The city contributed about $160,000 last year to a variety of social service programs that assisted the homeless and the needy, which included $40,000 for a shelter, he said. And about 7% of all the city’s housing units receive some assistance from local, state or federal agencies.
Nonetheless, the controversy over the homeless has been building here for two years.
-In December of 1984, Kenneth Burr, a transient, was found shot to death near the railroad tracks in Santa Barbara. A few weeks later, leaflets appeared at a popular gathering spot for transients warning: “You are not welcome here in Santa Barbara. I will make life difficult for you as I did Mr. Burr. . . . You bastards are low-life scum and will not endure. . . .” Police identified the man who wrote the leaflets but said he was not involved in the murder, which remains unsolved.
-Eight months later, another transient was brutally murdered by a cadet from a Santa Barbara military school. Homeless activists were outraged when the cadet was convicted only of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 16 years to life.
-Santa Barbara County registration laws prohibiting those without a permanent address from registering to vote were the focus of a long court battle eventually won by homeless advocates when a state appeal court ordered an end to the voting restriction.
-In 1984, a proposal was brought before the City Council to outlaw the removal of food from garbage cans. After some controversy, the measure was rejected.
-The same year, indigents complained before the City Council about alleged police brutality and marched in protest on President Reagan’s Santa Barbara-area ranch.
Two Students Murdered
The anti-public-sleeping law was enacted in 1979 after two Westmont College students camping on the beach were murdered. City officials say that concerns about safety precipitated the law, but homeless activists claim that the killings were just an excuse to initiate legislation that could be used to drive transients out of town.
“Whatever the reason for drafting the law seven years ago, today the effect of the law is simply to make not having a home illegal,” said City Councilman Gerry DeWitt, who said he will vote to overturn the sleeping ban at Tuesday’s meeting. “In this community, where rents are very high for even a lot of working people, it’s difficult to afford an apartment.”
There are about 1,500 homeless people in Santa Barbara, estimated Rosenthal, who has studied the homeless in Santa Barbara for three years and is writing a Ph.D. thesis on the subject. And although local merchants have claimed that the majority are transients who recently drifted into town, more than half became homeless while living in Santa Barbara, Rosenthal said.
Last month, Paul Perkins was living in a $790-a-month three-bedroom apartment in Santa Barbara with his wife and five children, he said. Now the family is staying at the Transition House shelter. Perkins lost his job as a tree trimmer, fell behind in his rent and he and his family were evicted. They stayed with Perkins’ brother-in-law for a few days and then moved into a motel. When the family’s savings ran out, their only alternative was the shelter.
‘It’s Not Only Bums’
Perkins is looking for another job. But even if he finds one it will take him months to save the almost $2,000 he needs as the first and last months’ rent and a security deposit to move into an apartment.
“If I would have had to stay in my car . . . I could have gotten busted,” said Perkins, who was born and raised in Santa Barbara. “That’s not right. These days rents are so high, it’s not only bums who are sleeping out.”
Much of the support for the anti-sleeping law comes from downtown business owners who complain that the homeless shoplift, verbally abuse passers-by, panhandle in front of their stores and generally tarnish the city’s image. Six merchants’ organizations recently banded together and urged the City Council not to “cave-in” to Snyder’s repeal efforts.
“We want to get the bums off the beach and that’s the issue in plain and simple English,” said Tom Tuttle, a member of Concerned Citizens for Santa Barbara. “They hurt local businesses and they hurt tourism. Santa Barbara is the most beautiful place in the world and it’s not safe to walk on the beach anymore. We just want to clean up the town.”
Long-Time Advocates
The homeless have had their advocates here before Mitch Snyder arrived. Homeless people and community activists have repeatedly lobbied the City Council to lift the anti-sleeping ban, without success. And although some have reservations about Snyder’s visit, they acknowledge that it was not until he threatened his march that the council seriously reconsidered the law.
Mayor Sheila Lodge said she plans to vote to change the anti-sleeping law “in spite of Mitch Snyder, not because of him.” Lodge had previously supported the law.
“Hearing about the dramatic increase of families and women and children to our shelters persuaded me. . . . And, yes, a big confrontation would be very expensive for the city and totally unproductive.”
Snyder is a man used to getting results. Two years ago, he went on a 51-day hunger strike until the Reagan Administration agreed to renovate an abandoned federal building three blocks from the Capitol as a shelter for the homeless. A movie about Snyder’s life, “Samaritan,” starring Martin Sheen, recently aired on national television.
Sending a Message
If the City Council votes to change the anti-sleeping law, which appears likely, Snyder and other advocates for the homeless hope it will send a message to communities throughout the country.
“Laws like these are neither effective nor humane,” Snyder said. “if every city in the country banned sleeping, you’d have 2 or 3 million homeless Americans on your hands. You’d either have to get them off the continent or lock them up.”
