Santa Barbara Softens Homeless Sleepers Ban
The City Council on Tuesday modified a controversial ordinance banning overnight sleeping in public less than two weeks before a promised demonstration by thousands of homeless people protesting the law.
The 4-2 vote followed a heated City Council meeting where more than 250 people jammed the chambers, an adjacent meeting room and a nearby balcony to debate whether the 7-year-old law, which banned sleeping in any public area between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., should be changed. Under the revised law, people will be permitted to sleep overnight in undeveloped areas near downtown, such as vacant lots, and in cars parked on city streets.
Sleeping on the beaches, in parks and in recreational vehicles on city streets and parking lots still is prohibited.
The council decision came in the face of a threat by Washington-based activist Mitch Snyder to lead a Labor Day weekend march by thousands of homeless people from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara to defy the sleeping ban and subject themselves to mass arrest. But, Snyder said in a telephone interview after the vote Tuesday, “the City Council showed reasonableness and courage in the face of some pretty strong emotion, so now there is no need for us to march.”
President Reagan is vacationing on his nearby ranch through Sept. 8, accompanied by numerous reporters. A demonstration over the Aug. 30-Sept. 1 holiday weekend could have focused worldwide attention on the problems of the homeless in Santa Barbara, a community that relies heavily on tourism.
The ordinance already has drawn national attention. This week, for example, the city law is being lampooned in the nationally syndicated comic strip “Doonesbury.”
City Councilman Gerry DeWitt said the decision to change the ordinance did not result from Snyder’s threatened visit, because the council first began reexamining the law 1 1/2 years ago. But, he acknowledged, the timing of the ordinance change was “advanced” by the prospect of the demonstration.
“The issue is much ado about nothing,” said DeWitt, who favored the change. “It’s an ineffective law. . . . Now we have to get moving on real solutions to the homeless problem.”
Activists estimate that 1,500 homeless people live in Santa Barbara.
Impact Called Minor
Snyder, who has visited Santa Barbara at least once in recent months to protest the law, suggested the ordinance did little to eliminate the homeless from Santa Barbara and said other cities could learn from the experience.
“More places are looking toward sleeping ordinances as the way to solve the homeless problem,” he said. “But, if you examine the situation in Santa Barbara, you can see it simply doesn’t work. The law doesn’t drive people out of town and doesn’t address the real problem.”
The ordinance was the subject of spirited debate at Monday’s meeting. Mayor Sheila Lodge said 105 people asked to speak on the issue before the City Council, more than any other issue in the five years she has been mayor. The ordinance was criticized in Hebrew, by a local rabbi, in Navajo, by an Indian woman, and in English by the homeless.
“I wasn’t born homeless, I just happen to be homeless now,” said James Williams. “It happened to me, it could happen to any of you.”
Jack Hobbs, who told the council he was once homeless, said he resents “being called a criminal simply because you have no place to live.”
Opponents Spoke Also
But representatives of local business and homeowner groups opposed changing the ordinance, complaining that the homeless drive tourists away and commit numerous street crimes. Genese Craddock told the council that one of the parks designated as a sleeping zone for the homeless is across the street from the motel she manages. Business will suffer, she said, and she will have to lay off employees.
“If you repeal this ordinance you can add (some of my) 25 employees to the others sleeping in the park,” she said. “Because they’ll be homeless too.”
A change in the law would send a signal to the homeless throughout the country, said Peter Hemming, who identified himself as a Santa Barbara resident.
“If you open the parks, every homeless person from Detroit or anywhere they feel a little cold will come here,” he said. “Don’t push this down our throat and invite everyone to Santa Barbara. . . . We’ve heard all about the homeless’s rights, but I have rights too.”
Santa Barbara’s sleeping ordinance is not unique. About a quarter of the cities in California enforce comparable ordinances, local homeless advocates say.
Zealous Enforcement
But Santa Barbara police have been more zealous in enforcing the ordinance, according to Willard Hastings of the local Legal Defense Center. In nearby cities such as Carpinteria and Ventura, police spokesmen say they rarely cite or arrest people for the offense. But Santa Barbara police have cited 1,058 people--15% of whom were also arrested--during an 18-month period ending last May for sleeping or camping on public or private property.
The changes made in the law shifted during the daylong council session. At first, in their morning session, council members voted to also include permission to sleep overnight in four city parks in nonresidential areas. Late in the day, however, the council introduced an amendment to eliminate the four parks.
The change came after Snyder told The Times he would call off the demonstration, and the homeless activist was not available for further comment. Hastings, however, said he believes the last-minute change would not alter Snyder’s decision to cancel the march.
Although the sleeping ordinance has been modified, Santa Barbara will be the topic of “Doonesbury” for the rest of the week, said Lee Salem, editorial director of Universal Press Syndicate, which distributes the comic strip to nearly 500 newspapers.
Because “Doonesbury” is written well in advance of the publication date, it is “not feasible to make changes,” Salem said. It’s author, Garry Trudeau, refused to comment about the subject of the comic strip, Salem said.
