Judge Bars Police From Citing Homeless at Civic Center

A Superior Court judge here issued a temporary restraining order Friday against the City of Santa Ana, prohibiting the city’s police from using a state anti-lodging law to cite homeless people found sleeping in the Civic Center.

According to Harry Simon, the Orange County Legal Aid Society lawyer who sought the order, Santa Ana police have issued citations to about 100 homeless people under the law, which dates to the 1870s and prohibits sleeping or setting up lodgings on both public and private property.

Simon represents three people who have been charged under the law, which he argued is vague, unconstitutional and unfairly targets the homeless.

In the latest courtroom battle over the hundreds of men and women who have taken up residence in the area, an attorney for the city told Judge Robert J. Polis that Santa Ana is concerned only about homeless people who litter, urinate and defecate in public, use drugs and commit crimes.

“They’re not particularly good about picking up after themselves,” said Assistant City Atty. Robert Wheeler, who said the homeless mar the “cleanliness, serenity and beauty of the Civic Center area,” which is often considered the capital of the county.

In issuing the temporary restraining order, Polis noted that the ruling will not prohibit law enforcement authorities from arresting or citing individuals who violate other laws.

“I do not see the (restraining order) in any way as requiring anyone to surrender the Civic Center to lawless vagrants,” said Polis, who set Oct. 22 for the hearing.

Simon’s clients have filed a class-action lawsuit against the city. Simon said he is mainly concerned about selective enforcement of the law.

“How do they decide (which people to cite)? Because someone smells bad, or is dirty?” In remarks outside the court, Simon questioned whether a man dressed in a suit who takes a noontime snooze would also be subject to citation. Persons convicted of violating the law face a jail term of up to six months, Simon said.

Simon said the homeless, who number about 3,000 in the area, have no place to go. There are only 332 shelter beds in the city, he said.

Wheeler said after the hearing that the city is not targeting the homeless.

“The city has never picked on the homeless,” he said, adding that he predicts a victory for the city.

Originally drafted to curb squatters in the Old West, the state’s anti-lodging law has been employed by Santa Ana police while an appellate court reviews the city’s anti-camping ordinance, which critics have challenged as unconstitutional.

The city ordinance has been upheld by a Superior Court judge, but is now before an appeals court.