Sacramento Assemblyman introduces bill to ban homeless encampments near parks and schools

Assemblyman Josh Hoover, R-Folsom, has introduced legislation that would prohibit homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools, daycare centers, parks, and libraries.

Assembly Bill 257 is one of the first measures proposed by Hoover, who was elected last November in a tight race with then-incumbent Assemblyman Ken Cooley.

“This bill is all about keeping our public spaces safe for the most vulnerable people in our community, which is our kids,” said Hoover on Tuesday. “It’s critical that we make sure all our kids feel safe walking to school.”

Hoover said that near his home in Folsom, he’s found needles and other drug paraphernalia where his three kids play.

“The goal of this bill is to make sure our public spaces are safe and usable. It is simply one part of a larger issue,” he said.

The bill would make a statewide law of what several cities in California have already proposed. Last October, the Sacramento City Council voted unanimously to add schools to its list of “critical infrastructure,” thus making it illegal for homeless communities to camp or use “camp paraphernalia” within 500 feet of school sites.

State Senator Angelique Ashby (D-Sacramento), then a council member, proposed the change after a homeless man was arrested outside Sutter Middle School in East Sacramento for yelling obscenities and making sexual gestures at students. The Los Angeles City Council passed the same restriction last August.

At the federal level, “critical infrastructure” is a label typically reserved for sensitive locations like wastewater treatment plants, power plants, levees, dams, or other buildings deemed vital to national or economic security. Advocates for the homeless say that politicians have expanded the meaning of “critical infrastructure” as a means of banning homeless people from as many public places as possible.

Hoover’s district encompasses Folsom, Citrus Heights and Rancho Cordova, as well as suburban unincorporated communities Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Foothill Farms, Gold River, Mather, McClellan Park, North Highlands, Orangevale, and Rosemont. AB 257 was co-authored by fellow Republican Assemblyman Heath Flora (R-Modesto).

“Our constituents are begging us to do something about this,” said Flora, whose District 9 includes parts of the San Joaquin Valley just south of Sacramento.

“The majority of homeless have mental health and drug and alcohol issues. Leaving them on the street is not a good place for them. We’re called as parents to protect our children, and having [homeless people] in proximity to schools is not a good place for them, either.”

The bill has received broad support among Republicans, while such bans have inspired serious Democratic infighting. When Ashby proposed the change last fall, progressive City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela questioned whether such a ban would be effective; the homeless man in question was not camping anywhere near Sutter Middle School at the time of the arrest.

“People in crisis really don’t tend to adhere to invisible boundaries,” Valenzuela said.

But “Democrats need to find new solutions because what we’re doing isn’t working,” said Sacramento-based Democratic strategist Robin Swanson, who supported Ashby’s proposal last fall and took heat from progressives for doing so.

“Kids being able to walk safely on a school field trip shouldn’t be a Democrat or Republican issue. If our sidewalks are littered with garbage, we’re doing it wrong,” she said. The homelessness crisis is “really eating away at the vibrancy of Sacramento ... Millions of dollars have already been allocated to address the homeless crisis, and my kid can’t walk on a public sidewalk to a field trip without walking by needles, drugs, garbage, human waste, excrement. Nothing about that is okay.”

The bill is “mean-spirited,” according to Bob Erlenbusch, Executive Director of the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness.

In press and social media, Hoover’s office refers to AB 257 as a proposal to “prohibit homeless encampments,” evoking an image of tent cities or larger communities. However, the bill states specifically that it would: “prohibit a person from sitting, lying, sleeping, or storing, using, maintaining, or placing personal property in any street, sidewalk, or other public property within 500 feet of a school, daycare center, park, or library.”

Hoover said on Tuesday that the bill “is not about prohibiting the individual person ... what we are limiting and prohibiting in this bill are the encampments from being placed in these areas.”

But as written in its first draft, the bill seems like a way to prevent homeless people from accessing thousands of public places, said Erlenbusch.

“You’re saying a homeless person is banned from sitting on a park bench or a bus stop bench. And homeless people use libraries all the time to access services, check their emails, and catch up on the news.”

Erlenbusch counted the number of schools, daycare centers, libraries and public parks in the state of California: Hoover’s bill as written would ban homeless people from being within 500 feet of about 47,000 locations.

“It’s basically banning homeless people from the state,” he said.

Hoover maintained that the bill is not an attempt to ban the homeless from accessing such services, or preventing a homeless individual from using public spaces.

“It’s important to come up with the right definitions, that’s what the legislative process is there for,” he said.

Hoover and Flora both said that they want to see compassionate long-term solutions for the people experiencing homelessness.

“Certainly, our intentions are not to just move people around and to not be compassionate. That is not our caucus’ perspective at all,” Flora said. “What we’re seeing, though, is there’s a lot of lip service ... and no measurable amount of success.”

With his new seat on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, Hoover says he’ll also propose an audit of statewide homelessness spending to see what approaches have been most effective, and that he’s eager to work with “anyone and everyone” across the aisle to come up with a solution.

“This is a multifaceted issue. [AB 257] is not the solution to homelessness, I’m not claiming that,” he said. “But in the short term, it’s critically important that we make sure these public places are safe for our kids.”

This story was originally published January 25, 2023 at 5:00 AM.