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p 2 '1 ). LIBERTIES UNION o .I SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA October 17, 2017 Mayor Miguel Pubdo Mayor Pro Tem Michele Martinez Council Member Vicente Sarmiento Council Member Jose Solorio Council Member Juan Villegas Council Member David Benavides Council Member Sal Tinajero Dear Council members, mnuhdo c2santa-ana.:oxg nvmartmez&santa rana.org vsarmientlo@auta-ana org isolorio rna santa-ana:org iviller*as&Santa-arra.;org dbenaviAes n@sania-ana.o stimic og, saata-:ai a&rg We strongly oppose the amended Ordinance No. NS -2926, which criminalizes 1) life- sustaining activities in the Santa Ana Civic Center, including sleeping in tents for protection from the elements; and 2) unauthorized provision of food, medical, or social services to people living in the Civic Center—a restriction on expressive conduct that violates the constitutional rights of religious organizations. We urge you to reject the ordinance. By criminalizing homelessness and the provision of humanitarian aid, the ordinance seeks to deter unsheltered living. But people are not malting a choice to be homeless. They are living in the Civic Center because they have nowhere else to go. According to a recent Bert by Susan Price, the Director of Care Coordination, the county's four housing authorities have a cumulative wait list for affordable housing of over 90,000 people, and the wait can last ten years or more. Further, there is approximately one emergency shelter or transitional spot for every two people in need. These severe shortages leave about half of all people experiencing homelessness with no alternative but to live outside. Punishing unsheltered people and preventing organizations from providing them with humanitarian aid is ineffective, cruel and immoral. It is also unlawful. For example, the requirement that food providers obtain written approval from the City Manager and obtain "any applicable licenses or permits required to provide such services or access to Civic Center property" prior to distributing food is unconstitutional. The ordinance's provisions are simply not sufficiently tailored to the City's purported interest in "ensur[ing] that all services are provided in an organized manner by those who have the proper experience and/or credentials needed to provide the service and who have submitted a set-up and clean-up plan to the City." Religious organizations such as the Catholic Worker regularly provide coffee and other food and toiletry items to homeless individuals in the Civic Center as part of their religious mission to provide alms to needy individuals. Others may do so to call attention to the needs of homeless individuals that are not being met by the City. Regardless of the rationales for their expressive conduct, their activities are entitled to First Amendment protections. To pass constitutional scrutiny, restrictions on expressive conduct must be "within the constitutional power of the Government," "farther[] an important or substantial governmental interest," be "unrelated to the suppression of free expression," and, most importantly here, be "no greater than is essential to the furtherance of that interest." United States v. O'Brien, 391