‘We’ll probably be sued over this’: New Yuba County rule bans camping on levees, parks
Yuba County Board of Supervisors passed an emergency ordinance banning camping along levees, sidewalks and parks, and barring encampments during the daytime on county property.
Unanimously approved during the board’s Tuesday meeting in Marysville, the ordinance is meant to address the rise of camps and tents built along the county’s waterways that officials say threaten the integrity of levees and put residents and homeless individuals at risk.
It also marks the latest attempt by a municipality in California to grapple with the implications of a federal appeals court ruling last year, which prohibits the prosecution of people “sitting, sleeping, or lying” outside if there are no available shelter beds because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Yuba County has done “a couple litmus tests” to ensure that the ordinance does not conflict with the so-called Boise decision, said Board of Supervisors Chair Mike Leahy. He stressed that the ordinance was meant to specifically regulate camping, and was not “the criminalization of being homeless.”
“We never mention the word that starts with the letter H,” Leahy said.
The ordinance also bans camping at the airport south of Marysville, cemeteries and any county right of way — such as roadway shoulders, alleys and highways — and bans storing personal belongings on virtually any public property. Residents will be given 48-hour notice before their property is removed and stored for 90 days for retrieval.
“We’ll probably be sued over this,” Leahy said. “That’s just me being candid, but if you do nothing — I’m sorry, I just can’t do nothing.”
There are 721 homeless people living on the streets, in cars or in shelter beds in Sutter and Yuba counties on any given day, according to a federally mandated biennial survey released this year. Although the number of homeless children decreased when compared with 2017, there are more adults experiencing homelessness, and many more living on the street unsheltered, according to the count.
Leahy acknowledged the county does not have enough shelter beds currently, saying “they’re filling as fast as they’re vacant.” But with the rainy season approaching, Leahy said encampments that have dug into the levee must be repaired before water levels rise.
Over the last year, cities and counties across the state have lamented that the Martin v. City of Boise decision ties the hands of law enforcement and threatens public health and safety.
In an amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, the California State Association of Counties and 33 local governments argued the decision is “ill-defined and unworkable.” Next month, the nation’s highest court will announce whether it will consider hearing an appeal of the 9th U.S. Curcuit Court of Appeals ruling.
Meanwhile, cities and counties across the Sacramento region have been considering updates to their local laws to find wiggle room in the landmark ruling.
Camping ban ordinances are already being considered in Marysville and Placerville. Leahy said Yuba City, Wheatland, Live Oak and Sutter County are also poised to pass similar changes to their respective municipal code. “We don’t want to chase people from one side of the river to the other,” he said.
“Even where shelter is unavailable, an ordinance prohibiting sitting, lying or sleeping outside at particular times or in particular locations can be constitutionally permissible,” read the Placerville city manager’s Nov. 12 report on the city’s proposed ordinance.
But homeless advocates and the attorneys behind the Boise case have argued that the decision doesn’t just apply to nighttime sleeping. “It really boils down to, is someone engaged in something involuntary that’s a consequence of being human,” Tristia Bauman, senior attorney at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, previously told The Sacramento Bee.
“I think the whole state is looking at this and coming to the best resolution on how to frame up an ordinance that’s enforceable ... and up to the satisfaction of the courts,” said county spokesman Russ Brown.