City Takes New Tack to Roust Homeless : Courts: Barred from using its own anti-camping ordinance, Santa Ana will try state anti-lodging law. Legal Aid lawyer says that ‘smacks of bad faith.’

Just days after a judge barred the city from using its own anti-camping ordinance against homeless people, city officials have decided to try a state law instead.

Effective immediately, the city will enforce the state anti-lodging statute, which prohibits lodging in public or private places without permission, City Attorney Edward J. Cooper said Wednesday. The law has been used in other cities, he said.

The move follows an injunction issued Monday by a state appellate court blocking enforcement of a similar city ordinance.

“Our primary objective is to maintain the public health and safety in the Civic Center and other public properties, despite the ruling by the 4th District Court of Appeals,” Cooper said.

The city attorney conceded that enforcement may be tough because “lodging” denotes a semi-permanent home and “implies some sort of housekeeping,” he said, such as setting up a shack or cooking area. “Camping” implies a transitory living condition and applies to anyone using equipment such as sleeping bags on public property.

A lawyer for Legal Aid, which has defended the homeless against ouster from the Civic Center, said he was shocked by the city’s latest move.

“For the last five years, the city of Santa Ana has engaged in a sustained campaign to drive the homeless from the city,” attorney Harry Simon said. “We have filed three lawsuits, and I don’t want to have to file a fourth.”

Simon noted that city documents indicate that about 3,000 homeless people, on average, stay in Santa Ana each day, and 332 beds are available in shelters.

Enforcing the state law “smacks of bad faith,” Simon said. “I would hope that the city would have gathered from the Court of Appeals that it has serious doubts about the constitutionality of Santa Ana’s means of dealing with the homeless.”

Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young, however, said the city should enforce the law.

“The one thing we won’t tolerate is the establishment of another tent city” at the Civic Center, he said. Officials will discuss the issue at next week’s City Council meeting, he said. Cooper said police will, in tandem, actively enforce a municipal law against urinating and defecating in public.