CORRESPONDANCE - 85B - Laserfiche WebLink

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Salas, Diana From: Tim Johnson <tjohnson@jlkrllp.com> Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 11:53 AM To: eComment Cc: Solorio, Jose; Iglesias, Cecilia; Villegas, Juan; Sarmiento, Vicente; Bacerra, Phil; Pulido, Miguel; Penaloza, David; Ridge, Kristine; Flores, Rosa Subject: Agenda Item 85B- PD Homeless Enforcement Attachments: 340- SA Settlement Agreement dtd 9.23.19.pdf Mayor, Council, and City Manager ... On tonight's agenda item 85B, I urge you to thoughtfully and compassionately explore this item to its fullest. As you know, issues surrounding homelessness are likely one of the most important issues for a lot of Santa Ana residents and business owners. I would suggest that as part of tonight's discussion that the Chief of Police provide an overview of what the SAPD's current enforcement efforts are and what the consequences of such enforcement truly is. Part of what the city needs to do a better job of is to communicate information so that the community can set expectations in line with reality and also to suggest areas of improvement. We first need to know what the current state of affairs is with regards to enforcement of anti -camping, panhandling, and other laws. For example, is SAPD able to enforce its anti -camping ordinances with regards to someone who does not qualify for services at The Link? As you know, for someone to qualify for housing at The Link they need to have ties to Santa Ana, so someone who just arrives and indicates that they are not from SA, may not qualify for services at The Link. What about during days and hours that The Armory is not available such as 11am or during a "dark day" for The Armory. Essentially, please have the City Manager and the Chief communicate the current status of enforcement so that you, the public and the city staff can appropriately direct the PD. I also urge you to suggest that whatever enforcement procedures are taken on with regards to the homeless community to involve social services in this process and lead with a desire to help those who are experiencing homelessness. Often the need is much more than just housing such as mental health services and substance abuse addiction services. We need to coordinate and lead first with an offer to help. This may mean that the first contact is with a trained social service worker and possibly not PD. As you know, often this population may respond better with a social services worker as opposed to law enforcement. Section 4 of the settlement in federal court with the Catholic Worker case provides a framework for leading first with contact from Outreach and Engagement (county O&E, CityNet, homeless liaisons, etc...), which will require county and other coordination- please find such settlement attached. Section 4 as referred to above starts on page 10 of the attached adobe file. The county has previously indicated that anytime that SAPID needs their assistance with O&E, that they will be available- it is time to hold them accountable to this. Please also focus on placement for services as well as repeated enforcement instead "one off' enforcement actions. I believe that consistently offering of services and enforcement actions is the better way to go instead of having one day a month/week or whatever for PD and 0&E to go out and perform outreach and enforcement. I would also suggest that those in violation of anti -camping ordinances be provided their rights with regards to the recent Martin vs Boise decision in terms of whether a city that does not provide shelter services may be a better location if they determine it is in their own best interests to possibly reside in another city that does not provide shelter services. Representatives from the county have previously indicated that they expect that after Santa Ana begins enforcing their anti -camping ordinances that the homeless will begin to move to other cities that are unable to enforce anti -camping ordinances such as most South County cities. However, the homeless population needs to be informed of this.