A much-amended 'Bill of Rights' for the homeless passed out of the California Assembly's Judiciary Committee two days ago on a surprisingly decisive 7-2 vote. The bill, authored by Representative Tom Ammiano of San Francisco, contains strong language protecting the rights of homeless people, despite a number of provisions struck from the latest version.
Such a bill is necessary because, as Amminano says
Today numerous laws infringe on poor peoples' ability to exist in public space, to acquire housing, employment and basic services and to equal protection under the laws.
From the preamble to the legislation:
This bill... would provide that no person's rights, privileges, or access to public services may be denied or abridged because he or she is homeless, has a low income, or suffers from a mental illness or physical disability.
The bill would provide that every person in the state, regardless of actual or perceived housing status, low income, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship, or immigration status, shall be free from specified forms of discrimination and shall be entitled to certain basic human rights, including the right to be free from discrimination by law enforcement, in the workplace and while seeking services.
San Francisco and other municipalities in California currently have so called "sit and lie" ordinances which prohibit homeless people from various activities such as (oddly enough) sitting or lying on a public sidewalk (but for which a tourist or person dressed in business attire would never be harassed for doing by law enforcement).
In Detroit, Michigan, the ACLU has filed suit against the practice of Detriot Police picking up the homeless and 'dropping them off' twenty or thirty miles outside of town.
But there are also islands of different thinking. In November, 2012, Berkeley voters narrowly defeated a similar bill. In June of 2012 Rhode Island passed a 'Homeless Bill of Rights' law, which incorporated these provisions and more:
Someone who is homeless...
- Has the right to use and move freely in public spaces...
- Has the right to equal treatment by all state and municipal agencies...
- Has the right not to face discrimination while seeking or maintaining employment due to his or her lack of permanent mailing address, or his or her mailing address being that of a shelter or social service provider
- Has the right to emergency medical care...
- Has the right to vote, register to vote...
The California version is significantly stronger the Rhode Island's law, even after many weakening amendments were made in committee. Here's some clauses from the current language.
Why the bill is necessary:
he Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) In the State of California, there has been a long history of discriminatory laws and ordinances that have disproportionately affected people with low incomes and who are without homes...
(c) Today, in the state, many people are denied the following:
(1) Housing due to their status of being homeless, living in a shelter, a vehicle, the street, or the public domain.
(2) Employment due to their current status of being homeless or living in a shelter or a vehicle on the street.
(3) Housing and employment as a result of not having a fixed or residential mailing address or having a post office box as a mailing address.
(4) Equal protection of the laws and due process by law enforcement and prosecuting agencies...
(f) Homeless persons are often forced to separate from loved ones, give up their personal property, abandon pets, and make other inhumane choices in order to access even minimal shelter.
What it establishes as rights:
(a) Every person... regardless of actual or perceived housing status... shall have...
(1) The right move freely in the same manner as any other person in public spaces... without discrimination by law enforcement...
(2) The right to rest and sleep in public spaces without being subject to criminal or civil sanctions, harassment, or arrest by law enforcement...
(3) The right to own and possess set down or leave at rest personal property in public spaces without being subject to criminal or civil sanctions, harassment, or arrest by law enforcement...
(4) The right to share, accept, or give food in public spaces without being subject to criminal or civil sanctions, harassment, or arrest by law enforcement...
(6) The right to sleep, sit, lie down, stand, eat, solicit donations, or share food in a public place or in a vehicle in a public place, without being subject to criminal or civil sanctions or arrest by law enforcement...
...except that law enforcement may enforce existing local laws if all of the following are true: (1) the person's county of residence maintains 12 months per year of nonmedical assistance provided for in Section 17000 of the Welfare and Institutions Code for employable, able-bodied adults without dependents who are compliant with program rules established by the county, including work requirements; (2) the locality is not a geographical area identified by the United States Department of Labor in accordance with Subpart A of Part 654 of Section 20 of the Code of Federal Regulations as an area of concentrated unemployment or underemployment or an area of labor surplus; and (3) the public housing waiting list maintained by the county contains fewer than 50 persons...
(15) The right to assistance of counsel in any civil or criminal proceeding that may result in commitment to a public health institution.
A California law that prohibits discrimination against the state of being homeless, and makes it clear that cities and towns cannot order their police to "clean up the town" by harassing, citing and/or removing the homeless is far past due.
"Citations, arrests and jail time do not solve homelessness," Ammiano told the Assembly Judiciary Committee. "They just route crucial public dollars that could be spent on housing to an already impacted court and corrections system." -- The Republic.
Creating an atmosphere where the homeless do not feel utterly stigmatized, where hopelessness is replaced by hope in being able to get a job or assistance, is equally important. (And a bill to prevent discrimination in job searches against the long-term unemployed would be another important step).
If this bill passes at all, expect the provisions to be watered down further, probably significantly. But as Jennifer Friedenbach of the Coalition on Homeless noted, if the bill maintains its core principle:
making sure homeless people have a fundamental right to rest
that would be progress.