Anti-Camping Trial Begins Today

Jim Eichorn, a homeless man who is challenging Santa Ana’s anti-camping ordinance, will have his day in court today after three years of waging a legal battle.

Eichorn is a 49-year-old Vietnam veteran and one of 50 homeless people cited with misdemeanor charges for sleeping in the city’s Civic Center during the winter of 1993. Eichorn is the first defendant cited under the law to take his case to trial, which begins this morning.

“I had no choice but to be out there,” said Eichorn, who has been homeless on and off since 1980. “I don’t want them picking on me. [This ordinance] is making homelessness a crime.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Pierce said during pretrial motions Monday that the city could not be responsible for providing shelter for every resident.

“What the defense is saying is that the city of Santa Ana cannot ban camping on public property unless they provide housing for everybody,” Pierce said.

Last year, the California Supreme Court upheld Santa Ana’s anti-camping law.

At Monday’s hearing in Municipal Court in Santa Ana, Eichorn’s attorneys argued that as a homeless man, down on his luck and unable to find a job, he had few alternatives besides the street.

“Basically, [you] are violating the law if you sleep in a public place in the city of Santa Ana,” said Brett Williamson, an attorney with the private law firm O’Melveny & Myers who is representing Eichorn for free during the nonjury trial. “If you don’t have a home in the city of Santa Ana, you don’t have a choice but to break the law.”

Eichorn’s attorneys are expected to argue today that when the law is applied to those who are involuntarily homeless, it is unconstitutional. The case will be heard by Municipal Judge James M. Brooks.

A 14-year resident of Santa Ana, Eichorn maintains that he exhausted all other options on that cold, rainy night on Jan. 25, 1993, when he was cited by Santa Ana police. Unable to get a bed at the armory shelter, he said, he headed for his favorite sleeping spot outside Building 12 at the Civic Center.

He met up with friends camped under an alcove, settled into his sleeping bag and listened to Mystery Theater and the late news on his portable radio.

But before he could fall asleep, Eichorn was cited with a violation that carries a possible penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Eichorn, who survives by donating blood and earning $35 to $40 a week, said he decided to take his case to trial on principle.

“I hope to prove my point that the homeless are people too,” said Eichorn, who worked off and on as a machinist before he became unemployed. “Santa Ana is my home. I love to work. I love my independence. But when times get bad, then they dump on me. I don’t like that.”