Anti-Camping Law to Take Effect : Homeless: Santa Ana officials say no arrests will be made for a few days. Enforcement will be concentrated in the Civic Center area, where items may be seized.

With the city’s anti-camping ordinance scheduled to take effect at midnight tonight, officials said Tuesday that they will wait several days before arresting homeless people who camp or store personal property on public land.

In a city where government and homeless rights advocates have clashed over the handling of the homeless population, officials said they will phase in enforcement of the new law, circulating flyers and issuing warnings before arresting violators.

Police Lt. Robert Helton would not disclose when strict enforcement would begin, but said it would be sometime during the next week and would be concentrated in the Civic Center area.

“In addition to arresting individuals who will be cited and released, we will be seizing certain items that support . . . evidence that they are in fact camping,” Helton said. Among the items that could be confiscated, he added, are tents and shopping carts, which commonly are used by the homeless to store personal belongings.

Harry Simon, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, said the expected legal challenge to the new ordinance has been delayed for one week. But he warned that while the city may have the right to ban camping, it cannot prevent people from sleeping.

But Helton said the city’s enforcement would be aimed at those who are obviously camping.

“Our attention is focused on someone who is camping, versus someone who may be taking a nap on a bench or on the grass,” Helton said.

Because misdemeanor offenders are not taken to County Jail due to overcrowding, violators of the new law will be given tickets, officials said. If they do not show up for their court dates, warrants will be issued for their arrest, making them liable to jail time.

However, Helton said the city plans to lock up misdemeanor violators once its temporary jail facility is completed at the end of this year.

City Atty. Edward J. Cooper said his office will recommend to the courts that bail be set at $125, and that a $106 fine be issued for violations of the anti-camping ordinance.

During the last weekend, volunteers, who earlier had raised money to help the homeless, dismantled many of the makeshift tents as part of a drive to clean up the Civic Center area. Though they took down sleeping shelters, they left behind shopping carts and other storage bins used by the homeless.

“Looking out my window it looks like it’s about 50% clear,” Cooper said, “so that certainly will make our job easier in enforcing the ordinance. I suspect there will be voluntary compliance in large measure and there will be few who will violate the new law.”

But there were signs that the task of enforcement may be never-ending. Where volunteers had cleared tents from the shadows of City Hall during the weekend, three new temporary shelters made out of plastic had been erected by Tuesday.

At the same time, a homeless man who was sitting on a nearby park bench said that while he favored the new law--because the Civic Center is not the proper place for tents--it would not prevent him from sleeping where he wishes.

James Jackson, 44, said he does not have a tent but has spent nights in the Civic Center off and on during the last two years.

“I’ll just sleep someplace where they cannot find me,” he said. “I’ll just go to a restaurant, one of these all-night places, and drink coffee for two or three hours and then sleep sitting up for an hour or so on a bench. They can’t keep me from doing that.”