STANTON : Council to Consider Anti-Camping Law

Worried about a potential invasion of homeless into a Civic Center complex that is not yet complete, Stanton officials plan to press ahead for an ordinance banning camping and sleeping on city property.

Led by Mayor Sal Sapien, the City Council last week voted to consider such an ordinance. However, at the request of Councilman Harry Dotson, who opposed the proposal, the draft ordinance was sent to the Sheriff’s Department for review.

The council will take up the issue again in January.

Sapien said he is concerned about transients camping at the $5-million Civic Center, which is scheduled to open in May. He said he is determined to ban “professional homeless people looking for a confrontation for a lawsuit and publicity.”

Sapien said he has already received complaints about homeless people sleeping at the Norman Ross Sports Facility, which is next to the site of the Civic Center.

Ordinances that attempt to restrict the homeless in Santa Ana, Fullerton and Orange have triggered court actions.

The delay was sought by Dotson, who cited concerns over the potential for taxpayer liability.

“Why should we rush into something that might cost the city some valuable dollars?” asked Dotson. He suggested that by January, the lawsuits against Santa Ana, Fullerton and Orange might be concluded.

Harry Simon, a homeless advocate lawyer who is suing the other three cities, has said that Stanton could be joined to the suit if the ordinance is passed.

But Simon, who works with the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, said it is “improbable” that the legal challenges will be concluded by the end of the year. Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild are also involved in the suits.

Simon said he is basing his attack on the anti-camping laws on the constitutional right to freedom of movement.

He said if homeless people cannot live anywhere in a city, then their right to be in that city is damaged.

If Stanton wants to protect the Civic Center, officials should ban camping and sleeping only in that area, Simon said.

Councilman Don Martinez said he was uncomfortable with legislating against the homeless.

“It’s rather sad to me to be moving on these groups,” he said. “I think we’re all paying the price for greed and survival of the fittest in the ‘80s.”