Car camping ban to be discussed this month
CITY HALL — Four years after it was voted down by the elected leaders of Santa Monica, a drive to criminalize camping in cars is once again gaining speed.
The goal, according to city officials, is to quell ongoing complaints from residents and merchants who claim the often-homeless motorists leave behind litter and human waste, use drugs and alcohol, and make neighborhoods unsafe.
Agreement on the divisive issue is anything but certain. City Councilman Kevin McKeown, who voted against the law in 2001, indicated he would do so again.
“The moment we provide adequate housing for people in need, I’d consider this,” McKeown said Wednesday. “Meanwhile, cars are often the last refuge for vulnerable people who have nowhere else to go but the street... I’d be hard-pressed to roust people from their only home.”
Still, City Councilman Bob Holbrook said he was pushing for the law because he thought the November election of Bobby Shriver meant there were enough votes to initiate a ban.
“The problem is still there,” Holbrook said. “It’s no better. It’s probably worse... We never thought that cars were a proper place for people to live on the streets of Santa Monica. It just makes it very difficult for them to maintain the parks in Santa Monica when people are there 24 hours a day, either on the curb or in the park.”
Motorists frequently camp on the freeway overpasses on 11th and 14th streets, and north of Wilshire Boulevard near Christine Emerson Reed Park and north of St. Monica’s Parish.
“I just don’t know,”
“We are urbanized, so there’s less need for people to be camping in their cars when they’re traveling. I have some sympathy for people who are travelers, the nomads and wanderers of the world, but in my own experience it’s only happened rarely where I couldn’t find a campground, or a motel or hotel.” — she said
Though officials didn’t provide current data, a 2001 report prepared by Santa Monica Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. conservatively estimated that at any given time at least 70 vehicles used for long-term accommodation were parked in Santa Monica, and more during summer months. The report indicated police referred nearly 280 homeless motorists to local social service agencies in the prior 12 months. Similar bans existed in Berkeley, Glendale, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Marina del Rey, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Torrance and Ventura, according to the 2001 report.
SMPD Lt. Frank Fabrega said the people most affected by the ban would be homeless people who are pushed out of public parks and then retreat to their cars to sleep. It is already illegal to sleep overnight or camp in public spaces in Santa Monica.
The issue is scheduled to come before the Santa Monica City Council on March 22, as part of an update on homeless services throughout the city, said Julie Rusk, City Hall’s director of human services. Also expected to be part of the agenda is a report on the status of a sobering center in Santa Monica, where police can take public drunks instead of jail, and other new laws and programs that address homelessness.
How exactly the law would be worded could determine whether it targeted only overnight campers or anyone napping in their car, though officials said that wasn’t the goal. The wording also will decide if the proposal would affect passenger cars only, or RVs and vans also.
City Attorney Marsha Moutrie said the law likely could be tailored so as to not violate the constitution.
“Though I’m not aware of any particular proposal as yet as to a municipal law, I believe it is probably possible to draft a law that would prohibit camping in passenger cars within the city without violating constitutional rights,” she said.
John Maceri, executive director of the Ocean Park Community Center, the city’s largest provider of social services, said the broad effort to crack down on homelessness likely will have some unintended negative consequences.
“A car is not an ideal living solution, but sleeping in a car is better than sleeping in an alleyway or sleeping in a carport,” Maceri said. “I think the notion is that we’re just going to get tough and that’s just going to drive everyone away... I understand what drives that thinking, but I don’t know that it’s necessarily the most productive.”
How the other council members will view the issue was unknown. City Councilman Bobby Shriver said he’s never considered the topic and would need to look into it. Mayor Pam O’Connor also said she hadn’t made up her mind, but added Santa Monica is an urban area, not a campground.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 3, 2005. Read the original PDF.