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Home My WebLink About4/13/2021 Item 2, Kopcinski Wilbanks, Megan From:Frank Kopcinski < To:E-mail Council Website Subject:Public Comments for City Council Meeting This Evening Attachments:03.18.2021 CRLA Letter Regarding SLO City Park Sweeps and SLOMC 12.04.pdf This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond. Good morning, Please find attached our written public comments for this evening's meeting. Best regards, ____________________________________________________ Frank Kopcinski (cope.chin.ski) Directing Attorney, CRLA-SLO Email: fkopcinski@CRLA.org Phone: (805)544-7994 (ext. 1504) Fax: (805)544-3904 California Rural Legal Assistance: Fighting for Justice, Changing Lives CRLA-SLO 1880 Santa Barbara Ave. Suite 240 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 www.CRLA.org CRLA Mission To fight for justice and individual rights alongside the most exploited communities of our society. NOTICE: The information contained in this e-mail, including any attachments, is intended only for the person or entity to whom it is addressed. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender by reply e- mail and delete the message. If you are not the intended recipient or the employee or agent 1 San Luis Obispo 1880 Santa Barbara Ave. Suite 240 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Tel: (805) 544-7994 Fax: (805) 544-3904 Frank Kopcinski Directing Attorney Vince Escoto Staff Attorney Gamelyn Oduardo-Sierra Law Graduate Sylvia Torres Foreclosure Intervention Coordinator Johnny Beltran Community Worker Myrna Alvarez Administrative Legal Secretary Central Office 1430 Franklin St., Suite 103 Oakland, California 94612 (415) 777-2752 (telephone) (415) 543-2752 (fax) www.crla.org José R. Padilla Executive Director Michael Meuter Deputy Director Ralph Santiago Abascal General Counsel (1934-1997) Regional Offices Arvin Oxnard Central Salinas Coachella San Luis Obispo Delano Santa Cruz El Centro Santa Maria Fresno Santa Rosa Madera Stockton Marysville Vista Modesto Watsonville CALIFORNIA RURAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE, INC. FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE, CHANGING LIVES March 18, 2021 VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL Mayor Heidi Harmon Vice Mayor Erica A. Stewart Council Member Carlyn Christianson Council Member Jan Marx Council Member Andy Pease C/O Christine Dietrick City Attorney's Office 990 Palm Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-3249 Re: Request to Cease and Desist unlawful practices involving persons experiencing homelessness at Mitchell Park and throughout the City by the City Police and Park Ranger Department. Interpretive Memo re Definition of Encroachment Under MC 12.04.020 Dear Mayor Harmon, Vice Mayor Stewart, and City Council Members, California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA) represents several individuals who are currently experiencing homelessness in the City of San Luis Obispo who have been unlawfully removed from their encampment homes in Mitchell Park and other areas of the City. We have written to and met with City Attorney Dietrick, City Council Member Andy Pease and other City staff on several occasions to discuss the City’s illegal practices and to ask the City to halt the practices that started with sweeping unsheltered individuals from the Bob Jones Trail early last year. Despite our advocacy and the ongoing pandemic, the City provides only meager services to the 482 (San Luis Obispo 2019 Point in Time Count) unhoused individuals who reside in the City, and fails to ensure adequate shelter for these unhoused individuals before evicting them from their encampments. The City CALIFORNIA RURAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE, INC. FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE, CHANGING LIVES 2 has continued to threaten to displace homeless individuals, many of whom are disabled and who have no alternative housing or shelter, apparently seeking only to remove them from sight and City limits. The City’s current practices and policies are unlawful and must be stopped. We have received and investigated complaints that over the past one or two weeks, San Luis Obispo police officers have used unlawful practices to force all unhoused individuals from Mitchell park. Our investigation indicates that City police officers have used the threat of arrest to coerce unhoused individuals to leave the park or not to set up a tent for rest during the day or night. We also have received reports that police officers have carried out random searches and arrests of homeless individuals attempting to set up tents or otherwise resting on the ground or on park benches. We also received reports of the City Park Rangers removing the property of homeless individuals residing in encampments. The police have at times told unhoused individuals and their advocates that City regulation prohibits tents at City parks. These communications were based on official statements that the City has adopted an “Interpretive Memo re Definition of Encroachment Under MC 12.04.020” of Municipal Code 12.04- Encroachment that prohibits the use of tents in Mitchel Park and presumably other areas throughout the City (the City has already posted MC-12.04 in Laguna Park). Evicting unhoused individuals from encampments during the pandemic without providing any housing to the displaced individuals does not conform to the guidance the Center for Disease Control (CDC) established for addressing homeless encampments during the Pandemic. (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019- ncov/community/homeless-shelters/unsheltered-homelessness.html). The CDC recommends allowing unsheltered individuals to remain where they are and providing them with necessary sanitation facilities unless municipalities can provide individual housing units. The City’s recent actions could also be considered a state- created danger. (See Santa Cruz Homeless Union, et al., v. Martin Bernal, et al., Case No. 20-cv-09425-SVK; CALIFORNIA RURAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE, INC. FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE, CHANGING LIVES 3 Sausalito/Marin County Chapter Of The California Homeless Ul\1o , et al., v. City of Sausalito, et al, Case No. 21-cv-01143-EMC). Municipal Code 12.04, as currently applied to people experiencing homelessness, and the practice of forcibly removing the unhoused from Mitchell park, violate numerous provisions of the United States and California Constitutions, and numerous state and federal statutes. The City’s practices and enforcement of the Municipal Code 12.04 violate the 8th amendment of the U.S. Constitution. (See Martin v. City of Boise, 902 F.3d 1031 (9th Cir. 2018); See also Blake v. City of Grants Pass, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129494 (Case where U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon recently granted class of homeless individuals motion for summary judgement, awarding the plaintiffs attorneys fees and affirming that the city’s ordinances as applied to the plaintiffs violated Martin and the 8th amendment to the U.S. Constitution)). These practices also constitute discrimination against individuals with disabilities in violation of Title VIII, the ADA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Cal. Gov. Code § 11135, and numerous state civil rights statutes. The San Luis Obispo County’s 2019 Point in Time Count indicates that 31% of the homeless individuals surveyed in San Luis Obispo County in 2019 reported having psychiatric/emotional conditions, 26 % reported having PTSD, 21% reported having physical disability, and 41% reported having at least one disabling condition. The City’s policy denies homeless individuals’ right to equal protection of the law and is without any rational basis. The City’s three factual justifications for the policy is not supported by any evidence. First, the Memo claims tents obstruct open public views in City parks. This is clearly a gross exaggeration. A typical tent is only 3 or 4 foot high and does not obstruct any views. Bounce houses used for CALIFORNIA RURAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE, INC. FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE, CHANGING LIVES 4 children’s birthday parties that are 10 or more times the size of a 3 or 4 person tent do obstruct “open public views in City parks.” Bounce houses would however likely be permitted under the Memo, as they are not “closed to public view from the outside, or … capable of obscuring from public view from the outside any occupant or activity inside the structure or object.” The Memo also alleges that tents must be banned because they physically obstruct or impair the use of the parks equally by all members of the public for their intended purposes. Parks serve many functions and providing a minute’s rest to someone who is weary of roaming the streets all night long in search of warmth and safety would certainly be a legitimate use of a park. Moreover, city parks are often used by members of the public in a manner that excludes others from a portion of the park, without any objection by the City. When kids play Frisbee in the park, members of the public are excluded from the area they are using. Finally, the Memo states that tents conceal unlawful conduct in the parks from public view. The City has not promulgated any regulations against utility vans despite the fact that these vans could conceal illegal activities. The City has no laws against storage units because they can harbor illegal conduct. Similarly, the mere possibility that illegal conduct could occur in a tent should not be used as justification to ban tents. Moreover, the City has not provided evidence to support its claim that “Unlawful activities in parks that have been exacerbated by the erection of tents or other structures or objects that obstruct those activities from public view include, but are not limited to, drug use, alcohol consumption, and sexual activities not compatible with public spaces, which have resulted in increased adverse or aggressive behaviors in the parks, or visually, verbally or physically threatening interactions among members of the public seeking to utilize the public parks.” If you have evidence that supports these allegations, please provide it to us as soon as possible. We believe that this administrative interpretation of the MC 12.04 is illegal because the proper procedure was not followed in adopting what appears to be local regulation or legislation. Due process of law CALIFORNIA RURAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE, INC. FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE, CHANGING LIVES 5 was ignored in taking these actions and the Municipal Code appears to lack any hearing process or adequate due process procedures. We ask the City to direct officers of the SLO Police Department and the Park Rangers to refrain from implementing MC-12.04 or using it in any way to order, persuade or encourage or suggest that unhoused individuals seeking respite in City parks and other places may not seek such respite, as these individuals are forced to use these areas as alternatives to emergency, temporary or permanent housing. Further, we urge you not to schedule this policy for public comment and consideration and to use less punitive alternatives. Best regards, Frank Kopcinski (cope.chin.ski) Directing Attorney, CRLA-San Luis Obispo fkopcinski@CRLA.org 805.544.7994 (ext. 1504) CC: Jeff Smith, Interim Chief of Police Email: jsmith@slocity.org Greg Avakian, Director of Parks and Recreation Email: gavakian@slocity.org Matt Horn, Director of Public Works Email: mhorn@slocity.org Doug Carscaden, Park Ranger Supervisor Email: dcarscad@slocity.org CALIFORNIA RURAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE, INC. FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE, CHANGING LIVES 6 Derek Johnson, City Manager Email: djohnson@slocity.org Babak Naficy Law Offices of Babak Naficy Email: babaknaficy@sbcglobal.net Luz Buitrago CRLA—Regional Director of Advocacy Email: lbuitrago@crla.org Ilene Jacobs CRLA—Director of Litigation, Advocacy, & Training Email: ijacobs@crla.org Vince Escoto CRLA—Staff Attorney Email: vescoto@crla.org