How a proposed law could affect Fresno’s homeless people

The spread of homeless people camping out on public and private property across Fresno – and a growing number of complaints from residents and businesses – is spawning a proposal to outlaw chronic camping.

Fresno City Councilman Steve Brandau, representing northwest Fresno, will bring his Unhealthy and Hazardous Camping Act to his council colleagues on Thursday at 4 p.m. at City Hall. The ordinance would make illegal camping a misdemeanor punishable by a fine or jail time or, alternately, force campers into MapPoint, the city’s clearinghouse for entry into social services such as emergency shelter, drug addiction rehabilitation, mental health treatment or other services.

Brandau’s effort has the support of Mayor Lee Brand and Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer.

Brandau said complaints about homeless represent the single biggest segment of phone calls his office receives. “Our business on North Blackstone, Shaw and Bullard avenues are getting pounded,” he told The Bee in an interview this week.

Brandau said his goals for the law are twofold: first, provide a mechanism for police officers to give campers a choice of either going to jail or being taken to MapPoint; and second, to clear out camps that are a health and safety nuisance to nearby homes and businesses.

“It’s about when you find the obstinate (campers) who won’t correct their behaviors,” Brandau said. “When someone’s an obstinate violator and we grab them, ‘We’re taking you in, but here’s your choice: Do you want to go to jail? Or we can take you to MapPoint, connect with a case worker and begin to get you some services.’ ”

Brandau said current estimates peg Fresno’s homeless population at between 1,700 and 1,800 people. Of that, he added, about 600 are individuals who refuse the city’s efforts to provide assistance and prefer to camp on the streets.

“It’s the 515,000 people in the city of Fresno that I’m trying to help,” Brandau told The Bee in an interview. “We’ve got other people whose whole lives are dedicated to helping the 1,800 (homeless). But we’ve also got to help the 515,000.”

It’s what Brandau calls a “tough love” approach. “We can find you housing, we can find you food, we can find you shelter and treatment and some of that stuff,” he said. “We want to force some of the more difficult folks into facing the fact that they need help.”

Homeless advocates fear heavy-handedness

But homeless advocates fear the law is heavy handed and criminalizes homelessness in the city.

Desiree Martinez, founder of Homeless in Fresno, said she agrees that there is a problem with encampments. “If you have multiple people outside your business, I would never want to come to work and have crap strewn all over the place – dirty clothes, leftover food,” she said. But, Martinez added, she believes the reason it’s rising to the council’s attention now “is because all of the homeless people are moving north … and people up there don’t like it at all.”

“The homeless are up there by River Park, and people up there don’t want to see that,” said Martinez, who was homeless and living on the streets for about a year and a half before getting her own apartment last year. “Businesses are calling, owners are calling and getting on the mayor, and I understand that.”

“Everyone categorizes homelessness as just one segment: ‘They’re dirty, ugly, dingy, and we don’t want them,’ ” she said of what she believes is a prevailing attitude. “But they’re human beings.”

Martinez said some homeless people fear seeking services from some organizations. “I’ve seen families out here with children that refuse to go to some agencies because they will split them up,” she said. “Why would you go if you’re afraid Child Protective Services will take your kids away from you? This is why they hide out here on the streets. They’re afraid.”

Brandau, Brand draw distinction among homeless

Brandau said he sees a distinction between victims of homelessness and a group of about 600 people who have been identified by police as problem campers who are becoming increasingly defiant and refusing to leave when asked by officers to move along. “The homeless veteran with (post-traumatic stress disorder), there’s a true homeless victim. The single mom with two kids who lost her job and can’t afford rent, she’s a true victim of homelessness,” he said. “But this group of campers, they don’t want help. … To me, that becomes more of a vagrancy thing. They’re a subcategory of the homeless who refuse help.”

Brand said he considers it “intolerable for anyone to be homeless” in modern society. But, he added, “it is equally intolerable that the streets, businesses, parks and public rights of way in every corner of our city are overrun by homeless and other individuals.”

“Residents are feeling threatened and businesses are struggling with homeless-related problems,” the mayor said. “As long as I’m the mayor of Fresno, we will not surrender to the homeless problem. We will not accept unsanitary and unhealthy encampments. We will not allow aggressive panhandling and criminal acts to occur without a response and consequences.”

However, he added, “we must treat homeless people fairly, compassionately and consistently.” Brand said he believes the proposed law “will help direct people to services they may not otherwise be aware of or be ready to take advantage of.”

Dyer said Brandau’s ordinance, if approved by the City Council, will give officers another tool for trying to help people.

Dyer described an “encampment” as 10 or more people living in a particular location for 10 or more days. “We try to get them to move along, and that’s what people want who live in those areas,” he said at a news conference Tuesday. “Over the last couple of years we have run into a lot of individuals who are just refusing to pick up their property and refusing to leave.”

Brandau acknowledged that one effect of the ordinance could simply be to drive the homeless from one part of the city to another – or out of Fresno entirely. “If some of them wanted to move to Oildale (near Bakersfield in Kern County), I’m fine with that,” Brandau said.

This story was originally published August 15, 2017 at 4:01 PM with the headline "How a proposed law could affect Fresno’s homeless people."