Other cities are dropping their homeless off in Fresno. This proposal would make it a crime
An ordinance sponsored by two City Council members would make transporting and abandoning a homeless person in the city of Fresno punishable with fines and jail time.
The Anti-Human Transportation and Abandonment ordinance by Councilmembers Mike Karbassi and Nick Richardson, along with the City Attorney’s Office, goes before the council on Thursday.
The idea is to stop other counties or cities in California from busing people into Fresno to take advantage of the resources available to the homeless, those with mental health issues or other needs. While city officials said it’s an ongoing issue, they provided no specific examples and added that the city was not pointing a finger at neighboring Clovis.
“The problem is, we need a law on the books that law enforcement can actually enforce and investigate, and that’s why we’re doing this,” Karbassi said.
Beyond burdening the Fresno-area resource providers, transporting a person away from any potential support network of friends and family back in their home county is also a further disruption of their lives, Karbassi said.
If the law were to pass, it would be illegal for a person without a fixed address to be transported and dropped off in Fresno by a law enforcement officer, agent or other governmental employee. Each instance would be punishable with a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.
The ordinance sponsors said they could not give details on incidents or potential incidents of such abandonment cases in the city.
City Attorney Andrew Janz said there were ongoing investigations of potential incidents.
“We do have instances that we are aware of, and we’re not inventing a law to address a problem that doesn’t exist,” Janz said.
Karbassi also pointed to the Pinedale area in north Fresno, saying it has a significant homeless population of people not from Fresno County.
Fresno would be the second California city to adopt such an ordinance, if it were to pass.
Santa Cruz passed a law last year that had the same goal, following an incident in which Santa Cruz accused Hanford police of driving 180 miles to the coastal town to abandon a homeless woman in a wheelchair.
Karbassi, Janz and Richardson held a news conference on Wednesday that included Clovis Mayor Vong Mouanoutoua, noting that they had no proof that Clovis is among the cities busing its homeless to Fresno.
“We want to be very clear, I have no reports of Clovis doing this,” Karbassi said. “We want to show that we have a regional approach to this issue, and we’re going to collaborate and work together.”
