Supreme Court Won't Hear Case Pivotal To Santa Cruz Camping Laws

SANTA CRUZ, CA — In a win for homeless advocates, the U.S. Supreme Court will not take up a landmark case that had significant implications for West Coast cities seeking to regulate homeless camping, including Santa Cruz. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees California, held last year in Martin v. Boise that city officials can only ticket homeless campers on public property if there is enough shelter space available to accommodate them. Otherwise, the court ruled, it's a violation of campers' Eighth Amendment rights to protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

The City of Santa Cruz bans public camping, but the ban is not enforceable since there isn't enough shelter space for people sleeping outdoors, the City Manager and City Attorney wrote in a letter to the city council for its Nov. 26 meeting.

In that letter, the city put forward a new proposal that seeks to ban camping in public from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Anyone camping from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. could only be ticketed if they are immediately able to go to a shelter and if they decline to do so.

That proposal was in line with the ruling in Martin v. Boise, but the city put it on hold to do more public outreach on the matter, said city spokesperson Ralph Dimarucut. Since the proposal was already underway, the Supreme Court's decision not to hear the case doesn't change the city's course, he said.

The council has also considered a Main Beach Public Access Policy that allows 24/7 access to water and wet sand, but bans loitering, sleeping or camping from midnight to an hour before sunrise.

Read more about Martin v. Boise here.