Orange County cities have been ramping up anti-camping efforts in response to a recent one-two punch from the Supreme Court and Gov. Gavin Newsom targeting homeless encampments.
The Supreme Court’s Grants Pass ruling in June made it illegal for unhoused people to camp on public properties even if they don’t have a place to sleep. In July, Newsom issued an executive order directing agencies to clear homeless encampments from state land while also urging local governments to do the same.
Newport Beach efforts
On Tuesday, Newport Beach leaders amended the city’s municipal code to ban people from setting up tents on public land, such as parks and beaches, sleeping in a public restroom and lying down or sleeping on public benches and bike racks. People are also banned from sleeping, sitting or lying down chairs and crates on public property. The new ordinance also makes it illegal for people to be in public plaza spaces from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. unless they are passing through.
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Orange County’s unhoused population jumped 28% total since the last count in 2022, officials announced in March. According to city officials, even though Orange County’s unhoused population went up at the last point in time count, Newport Beach’s population of people experiencing homelessness went down to 71 people from 96 in 2022.
Three police officers under the newly created quality of life team will join Newport Beach’s homeless liaison officer to enforce the new laws, deputy police chief Javier Aguilar said.
The police force hopes to add another three officers to enforce the new law in addition to a city prosecutor by 2025. This way, when someone is cited for violating the ramped up anti-camping law, they can be tried by the city rather than referring those cases to county prosecutors, Aguilar said.
San Clemente and Aliso Viejo
Earlier in August, San Clemente and Aliso Viejo also adopted ordinances that would allow the officials to enforce anti-camping laws even if no shelters are available — conforming to the Grants Pass ruling.
Still, San Clemente Mayor Victor Cabral said the issue of addressing homelessness is “a county responsibility or state responsibility as opposed to a city responsibility.” City prosecutor Matt Silver said he will work with the county public defender to address the issue of enforcement.
“I think that getting into the court system to the extent that that's required and unavoidable can actually open some doors,” Silver said. “That's our goal is to get these people somewhere.”
What housing advocates say
Cesar Covarrubias is the executive director of the Kennedy Commission, a local nonprofit that works to increase affordable housing opportunities for extremely low income families in Orange County. He said it’s unfortunate cities in Orange County are ramping up anti-camping laws in response to the Grants Pass ruling.
Instead he said, they should be “responding to solutions to address homelessness and the lack of affordable housing in our county.”
One way they could do this is using city owned properties for affordable housing, he added.
“You have individuals who are graduating from temporary housing, and don’t have anywhere else to go,” he said. “They just recirculate back into them being unhoused in our streets.”
