Legal Aid Attacks Santa Ana Restrictions on Homeless : Courts: Lawyer says camping ban targeting Civic Center would make homelessness a crime. City attorney argues no, it simply bars them from setting up living quarters.

Arguing that a municipal ordinance effectively banishes the homeless from Santa Ana, an attorney representing them urged a Superior Court judge Monday to strike down the law.

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The attorney asked the judge to enjoin the city from enforcing the ordinance on the grounds that it leaves the homeless with no place in the city where they can live lawfully.

If the law is upheld, “Santa Ana can make it a crime to be homeless and then drive the homeless out of the city. All that will do is make homelessness someone else’s problem,” said attorney Harry Simon of the Legal Aid Society.

But Santa Ana City Atty. Edward J. Cooper argued that the ordinance, which allows police to cite and remove homeless people from the Civic Center area, does not banish the homeless. It merely prohibits them from setting up living quarters.

The ordinance is necessary to ensure the unimpaired functioning of day-to-day business at the Civic Center, he said, adding that “we are not going to allow this kind of activity.”

Judge Robert J. Polis said that he would announce his decision Wednesday morning.

During the 90-minute hearing, Simon argued that the problem with the law “is not that it closes off the Civic Center. The problem is that it closes off the last available place that homeless people can go.”

“I don’t know what to tell my clients except, ‘Leave the city of Santa Ana, or face the possibility of arrest.’ Leaving the homeless with no place to go punishes homelessness,” he added.

Cooper responded, however, that the ordinance “doesn’t banish them from the city. It doesn’t ban them from the Civic Center area. It simply says they can’t set up camp there,” he said.

Cooper also attacked the suggestion that “homeless people have no place to go. I’m not so sure about that. We have shelters in Santa Ana. We have shelters in the county run by nonprofit organizations.”

Simon ridiculed that argument, saying that there are only about 300 shelter beds citywide for a homeless population estimated at 3,000 people or more. Therefore, 90% of the city’s homeless would have no place they could sleep without violating the law.

“Homeless people who can’t find shelter will be subject to arrest for up to six months in County Jail,” he said.