STANTON : Mayor to Introduce Anti-Camping Law

Fearing an influx of the homeless from Santa Ana to Stanton, Mayor Sal Sapien will introduce an anti-camping ordinance tonight, which would ban camping on public property throughout the city.

He said the ban needs to be in place before Stanton opens its $5-million Civic Center in May or June.

“If we don’t do something, the ones that were camping at Santa Ana will be moving into our facility,” he said. “I just want to make sure we are protected.”

However, City Atty. Thomas W. Allen warned that such a measure could prompt legal action against the city.

The cities of Santa Ana, Fullerton and Orange are being sued by advocates for the homeless because of their anti-camping ordinances. Lawyers for the homeless charge that the measures deprive homeless people of their constitutional right to freedom of movement.

“We’ve got three lawsuits going now, I suppose we could make it four,” said attorney Harry Simon of the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, one of the groups that is challenging the ordinances.

Simon said his group would not sue Stanton unless homeless people there began to complain, but he urged the council to think twice before adopting any citywide camping ban. Simon said the cities of Garden Grove, La Palma and Cypress have considered anti-camping ordinances but are awaiting court decisions in the suits against the other three Orange County cities.

The Stanton ordinance would ban sleeping and camping on public streets and land. It is similar to the ordinances approved this year in Santa Ana, Orange and Fullerton, Allen said. “Camping” includes the use of extra clothing, laying down a blanket to sleep or storing any personal belongings.

Simon said the proposed Stanton ordinance discriminates against the homeless because people who have lost their housing would be driven from their hometowns. There has to be “somewhere in the city” where homeless residents can sleep, he said.