San Clemente Homeless To Be Relocated To City Lot

SAN CLEMENTE, CA — Hundreds gathered at the San Clemente City Council meeting and witnessed the adoption of an "urgency ordinance" toward moving transients off North Beach. The city council voted unanimously to designate an area for transients in a city yard, that would be retrofitted to accommodate the campers from that area during Tuesday's city council meeting.

Establishing a place to go allows law enforcement the chance to enforce laws against "camping on private property," as 24 homeless are doing in North Beach, the city said.

The city cited safety as well as health and welfare among their reasons for helping the homeless relocate to a place that is safe and secure with proper facilities.

"The yard is less than a half-acre and will allow the homeless community — up to 96 people — to pitch their tents there at a cost to the city of about $50,000," the city said.

The temporary shelter at the lot will have a decomposed granite base, lighting, fencing, bathroom facilities, and security, they said, and area homeless will be relocated there by Friday afternoon, City Manager James Makshanoff noted during the meeting.

Law enforcement will help assist the move from North Beach to the new lot.

The proposed site will serve only San Clemente's current homeless population, and will not be open to neighboring communities homeless people, such as Mission Viejo and Dana Point, Assistant City Manager Erik Sund told the Orange County Register. According to a recent survey of area homeless, approximately 150 homeless people currently residing in south Orange County.

The attorneys for the homeless say the city is mistaken.

According to litigators, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the enforcement of anti-camping ordinances are unlawful unless municipal officials can establish they have provided adequate shelter space as an alternative.

Attorneys Carol Sobel, Brooke Weitzman, and Catherine Sweetser, who represent the homeless in the Orange County federal litigation before U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, penned the letter objecting to the plan to move transients "to a fenced parking lot that will be subject to monitoring and security."

They said city officials have mistakenly interpreted the 9th Circuit ruling and deliberately "misquoted" part of it to avoid providing "indoor" shelter.

"The city may not avoid the requirement of adequate indoor shelter," their letter says. "If the city enforces its urgent ordinance, it will violate the Eighth Amendment under (the recent federal appellate ruling)."

The attorneys noted that the city failed to pass an emergency shelter ordinance earlier that would have allowed it to qualify for "considerable funds" through Homeless Emergency Aid Program grants.

"The city also has an offer of nearly $1 million from the Emergency Shelter Coalition," the attorneys' letter says. "In any event, a defense of indigency will not excuse the city from the obligation to comply with the law in this instance."

The attorneys said the city's plan "replicates the inhumane camps now holding refugees and asylum seekers along the southern border of the United States. Unsheltered individuals are not criminals. The city is not even willing to provide basic shelters for individuals at this location."

They said the lot has a "gravel base" that will make the land hot during the summer and provide no shade and argued that confining transients to a fenced area with security would be a Fourth Amendment violation.

The city has said that the lot tent encampment will also have bathroom facilities, trash service, and security.

Residents responded to the report, over social media, with an attitude of appreciation for the city council's resolution.

"Let's keep our beaches, parks and other public recreation areas open and clean for taxpayers and tourists to enjoy," Shelli Rae Scott said on the local CapoCares facebook group.

"It's a good start, as doing nothing isn't fair either," Heidi Barker said. "Kudos to the city for finally doing something."

City News Service, with Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig