Agenda Item # 10.2 - Jan Bernstein Chargin | Received 07/05/2022CAUTION: This email originated from an External Source. Please use proper judgment and caution when opening
attachments, clicking links, or responding to this email.
From:Jan Bernstein Chargin
To:City Clerk
Subject:EXTERNAL - Public Comment for item 10.2, Gilroy City Council July 5, 2022
Date:Tuesday, July 5, 2022 1:53:32 PM
To the Gilroy City Council,
Tonight the Gilroy City Council will consider the following Possible Action:
Authorize the Gilroy Police Department (“GPD”) to enforce no-camping ordinances
on public property if it offers space at a homeless shelter to individuals beforehand
and ensures that the particular shelter that it is offering to connect the individual with
could accommodate their needs pursuant to The Americans with Disabilities Act
(“ADA”). Authorize city personnel to clean and clear encampments in public parks
and other public land in compliance with a written protocol (GPD Police Policy 411)
that provides a number of safeguards required by the Courts, including outreach
and notice to occupants, provision of social services, photographic documentation,
safeguarding of occupants’ personal property, and the making available of shelter
space for displaced occupants.
I have to assume the council is well-intentioned here but is being given very bad
information if they believe sweeps are enforceable or effective.
Gilroy cannot take action as described above, because Gilroy does not operate a shelter of
its own (even in inclement weather), and does not have a designated camping area or safe
parking area, but must refer people to the Santa Clara County shelter system. That system
is overwhelmed, with a months-long waiting list even to sleep on a mat on the floor of the
Gilroy Armory.
A call this morning to the county’s Here4You shelter hotline, 408-385-2400 (don’t take my
word for it, try calling it yourself) confirms that there are no shelter beds readily available
unless someone is being referred from a hospital. A woman I referred for shelter on June
17 is still on the waiting list. They haven’t assigned her case to anyone yet. She doesn't
want to be on the street. She is not refusing help, she is begging for it. As a woman alone
on the streets she has been harassed, threatened, sexually assaulted, robbed, and
humiliated. She has told me that people she grew up with (here in Gilroy) walk past with
eyes averted, pretending not to see her. Enforcement of a no-camping ban against her
would take away her clothes, blankets, tent, hygiene supplies, and what little stability she
has while she is waiting for shelter, leaving her even more vulnerable.
If the council’s concern is to reduce the violence and drug use on the streets, that is
commendable. However, we already have laws against these crimes. Perhaps that is
where enforcement should start. (Has any progress been made in investigating the
suspicious death of Andrea Huerta?)
As to the cleanup protocol, GPD Police Policy 411, the city has not yet been able to
demonstrate commitment to this. Although when sweeps have occurred (on Valley Water or
Union Pacific land) there has been notice to occupants, there has been no safeguarding of
personal property – those doing the clean-ups routinely state that they get to decide what is
property and what is garbage, and that tents, camping stoves, sleeping bags, and other
survival gear are garbage and will not be stored. For example, on June 22nd an unhoused
man was attempting to move his belongings OFF city property in a shopping cart. When he
sat down for a rest the cart and all of its contents: tent, tarps, clothing, blankets, were
removed by a city worker. Despite an outreach worker being on the scene asking that the
personal belongings be left with him, they were still confiscated. When the city resource
officers called to inquire about the belongings they were told (15 minutes after they’d been
picked up) that it had already been taken to the dump.
Until all city staff is trained and on board and systems are in place to ensure that people’s
rights are protected the city should not attempt to expand enforcement, which will leave the
city with significant exposure to legal action. Any large-scale sweep will certainly be costly
for the taxpayers of Gilroy if the courts are required to intervene to protect people’s rights
(just ask the taxpayers of Fresno and Chico.)
This proposed action would not be effective even if enforceable. As an outreach volunteer
that distributes food to unhoused people in Gilroy I have a pretty good idea of where the
encampments are. They are not on city property. Although Miller Park was specifically
mentioned in the report, there is no encampment there. Most of the people sleeping
outdoors in Gilroy do so on Valley Water, Caltrans, Union Pacific and other private land.
There are no large encampments on Gilroy park land.
Unhoused people often use the parks during the day, as is their right. If people are calling
to complain to the city council that there are homeless people in the park, I hope they would
be reminded that ALL residents, regardless of income or disability, have the right to use the
parks during regular hours. If the complaints are of drug use, drug dealing, or violence,
there are already laws against those behaviors, and those are the laws that should be
enforced. Taking away a tent from an unhoused disabled person across town does nothing
to stop drug activity in a park where no one is camping.
Please be honest with the community about what enforcement really means. Bulldozing an
encampment does not help the people who live there or the community at large. In the
absence of sufficient shelter or housing options, people whose camps are removed have no
option but to set up another camp nearby. They don’t leave town, they don’t suddenly stop
being homeless, and they don’t magically disappear. They aren’t “taken away to get help.”
Encampment sweeps use public funds and public employees’ time to make life harder for
the most vulnerable populations. Sweeps move encampments around town, expanding the
impact to multiple neighborhoods, without reducing the number of people on the streets.
Let’s also recognize the progress that is being made. Thanks to Measure A and the
county’s Care Coordination system, more unhoused people from Gilroy have gotten
housing over the past two years than ever before in my experience, and I have been
fighting the fight in this city for over 10 years. We are FINALLY seeing unhoused people
from Gilroy get into permanent housing in meaningful numbers, most of it in San Jose.
(Many of these people, although no longer unhoused, still come to Gilroy frequently to visit
friends and family.)
One thing that has facilitated this success has been the CDC’s moratorium on encampment
sweeps due to COVID-19. The process of getting someone help is made much more
complicated when you can’t find them. When we get a call that shelter is available, or that
someone has come up for housing, the entire process is derailed if we don’t know where
they are. People wait years for that call! A stable camping spot at least makes it possible to
take the next step. Rather than making it easier to help people, sweeping camps keeps
them on the streets longer.
Let’s talk about RVs. We know that the message boards of Facebook and Nextdoor
frequently fill up with people complaining about old “junky” RVs, and demands that they be
towed. What is rarely considered is that the RV is a vehicle that is someone's home, but
they can't continue to live in it at the tow yard. When the RV is towed, the people who live in
it and whatever belongings they have been able to salvage remain on the street. Many of
them then move into tents, adding to the encampment population. Towing people’s homes
is not a solution. A safe parking area can be.
In conclusion, I’d like to say that I do understand that you are under political pressure to
”look like we are getting tough and doing something.” This isn't the answer you are looking
for. Encampment sweeps will waste time and money while harming people we should be
helping. Let’s put that energy and money into actual solutions that can get the
desired result of getting people off the street:
Create a safe parking area and/or municipal camping area
Support the construction of deeply affordable housing for people with the lowest
incomes
Create more permanent supportive housing options for people with mental health and
other disabilities that will allow them to live safely in the community
Improve quality of life and community safety by increasing trash collection at
encampment areas, and providing port-a-potties or public bathroom access.
Thank you for your consideration.
Jan Bernstein Chargin
Gilroy homeowner
Board Chair, PitStop Outreach
Board member, Destination:Home