“Homeless Bill of Rights” would provide protections to homeless
by Brian Leubitz
Homelessness is always a tough issue. Not only in urban communities, but now in smaller towns where the foreclosure crisis has built squatter towns and unemployment has left many without permanent homes.
But in San Francisco, which recently passed a so-called “Sit/Lie” ban, the issue is particularly complicated. The measure bans sitting or lying on public sidewalks, with provisions to ticket and/or arrest violators. Asm. Tom Ammiano was very publicly against the measure when it passed, and has been working against it ever since.
And so, Ammiano’s AB 5 would provide a “Homeless Bill of Right” that would seek to “decriminalize homelessness.” Specifically, it would housing status as a protected class, and government entities could not discriminate based upon that status. The bill also contains some specifically enumerated rights:
Those include the right “to move freely, rest, solicit donations, pray, meditate, or practice religion, and to eat, share, accept, or give food and water in public spaces without being subject to criminal or civil sanctions, harassment or arrest.”
This would extend to parks for the entire 24-hour day, regardless of whether the park has hours that it is closed.(Wyatt Buchanan / SF Chronicle)
Now, in order to get this bill through the Judiciary Committee, which it did by a 7-3 vote, the bill was toned down a bit from its original form, and a bunch of exemptions were added. The bill faces substantial opposition from the League of Cities, which opposes the reporting requirements among other concerns, and the Chamber of Commerce. And an upcoming date with the appropriations committee could mean further alterations of the measure.
Before we remodeled our San Francisco house, we used to have a homeless woman sleeping in our porch
We put fencing and a gate to prevent this years ago
SF VOTERS said NO SLEEPING/LYING on Public sidewalks !
We VOTED ON IT
What part of that don’t you understand, Tom ??
There’s a guy who hangs out right by the ATM machine near my work place
Give him the right to do this ?
I voted for Tom Ammiano, but he sometimes goes over the edge
Some cities believe that if they adopt ordinances that make things tough on the homeless, the homeless will go away. But they never get around to defining “away”. The homeless end up going to the next city that responds by being even tougher on the homeless.
This cycle has turned us into something that none of us want. If we just set the standard at the state level so that all cities treat the homeless the same, we can get away from this very unhealthy competition.
We can quibble a out the specifics of the standards, but we need standards.
I think Tom Ammiano is the most interesting person in California politics. When you consider all the talk from Christians about compassion and helping the poor, you would think that this legislation would come out of the Christian community. If fact, it comes from the person Christians hate the most.
How about a competition between Ammiano and the Christians to see who can promote the most compassion? That would work for me.