Lawsuit still pending
Almost one year after it was passed, a law designed to stop homeless feedings in Santa Monica parks is being enforced for the first time, officials said Thursday.
A judge last month dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the law’s constitutionality.
“The ordinance was upheld and so we’ll go forward with the enforcement,” City Attorney Marsha Moutrie said.
But Carol Sobel, the lawyer representing the non-profit group contesting City Hall, filed an appeal to the judge’s ruling Thursday. Sobel, who says the ordinance is a violation of First Amendment rights, said it’s no surprise that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Manuel Real ruled the way he did and she is confident his finding will be overturned.
5EE,“This judge is the worst judge in the district. He doesn’t care what the law is,” Sobel said. “He is the most reversed judge in the district, so I had no expectation of anything else.”
The controversial ordinance, which has been embraced by local businesses and has drawn fire from charities, was passed by the City Council in October in response to the large groups of people that regularly receive free food from charity groups at Palisades Park and in front of City Hall. It requires organizers obtain permits from the Los Angeles County Health Department and City Hall for gatherings of more than 150 people, and gives police the ability to break up and cite distributors if they lack the proper permits.
Homeless rights activists say the law steps on the constitutional rights of charities and other organizations by giving City Hall unilateral power to block feedings in public parks. Santa Monica Food Not Bombs, a non-profit organization, challenged the ordinance in a federal lawsuit in January.
Despite that the case was dismissed by Judge Real, Sobel said City Hall will have a difficult time enforcing the ordinance.
“Every time we filled out papers and said, ‘This law is vague and unconstitutional,’ they went and changed their regulations,” Sobel said. “I don’t know how they’re going to enforce this, frankly. They’re going to be hard pressed to start prosecuting.”
“I don’t know how they’re going to enforce this, frankly. They’re going to be hard pressed to start prosecuting them.” — — CAROL SOBEL Attorney, Food Not Bombs
Sobel expects the preliminary injunction, which she filed Thursday, will move quickly through the courts and be heard in a few months.
Santa Monica Police Department Lt. Frank Fabrega said police were given the go-ahead to enforce the ordinance about a week ago but haven’t yet issued violations. Both Moutrie and Fabrega said City Hall will soon make a statement clearing up how it plans to enforce the anti-feeding law.
In the meantime, the charities haven’t stopped handing out free food to the homeless. Gail Gustafson, homeless coordinator for the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Westside, said she just recently sent in paperwork to the county for a permit. Gustafson, who distributes sack lunches each Sunday to homeless people at Christine Emerson Reed Park, located at Lincoln and Wilshire boulevards, does not need a permit from City Hall because she typically only serves about 80 people.
“We’re going to get a permit,” she said Thursday, adding she has never been approached by police officers in the three years she has been distributing food. “If we don’t get the permit we’re going to see about moving it to an inside venue.”
City Hall and county officials spearheaded an extensive outreach in the spring to educate the food distributors about the new ordinance. Moutrie said it’s highly unlikely that any of the people who give away food will ever be sentenced to the maximum sentence for the misdemeanor, which is six months in jail and $2,700 in fines. She said it’s more likely that police will simply use the law to break up the mass feedings.
The ordinance is one of two passed by the council last October in response to complaints that the city had become a magnet for homeless people who panhandle and urinate in public. The other ordinance makes it illegal to sleep in front of business doorways downtown between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 12, 2003. Read the original PDF.