KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
A community advocacy group is considering legal action against the City of Santa Clarita, after the City Council unanimously passed a public sleeping ban to combat the rising homeless population.
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The Los Angeles Community Action Network, a nonprofit to assist people in poverty, is “actively discussing” suing Santa Clarita in response sweeping new policies outlawing sleeping in any public space, said Pete White, the founder and executive director of the organization.
“The broad set of rules targeting homeless individuals living in Santa Clarita is nothing short of a lawsuit in search of a plaintiff,” White said.
The changes to city ordinances, approved at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, prohibits any camping, meaning setting up shelters or sleeping, in a public area.
The policy “sets a horrible precedent,” with more cities likely to follow suit, according to White.
Under the changed ordinance, the City of Santa Clarita has outlawed the laying down of bedding or other camping supplies commonly used by homeless people.
Public spaces include any city parks, public sidewalks and the miles of hiking trails that run through Santa Clarita, among others, according to city documents.
See Related: Santa Clarita City Council To Discuss Fighting Homelessness With Public Sleeping Ban
“The only way to fix homelessness is by providing permanent housing, not shelters,” While said.
City officials said in a previous KHTS interview this ordinance is designed to push the homeless population towards resources, including permanent housing.
“We want to keep our community safe. This is a public safety issue,” Councilmember Cameron Smyth said. “The city wants to encourage people to get off the streets and into the shelter.”
Santa Clarita’s seasonal homeless shelter, Bridge to Home, is preparing to build the first year-round emergency shelter in the SCV, after the city donated land valued at almost a million dollars, according to city staff.
“The goal of the ordnance is to make sure the homeless population is aware of the local resources,” said Danny Rivas, the City of Santa Clarita’s community preservation manager.
Bridge to Home is currently considered an emergency winter shelter, operating from November to March, until the year-round shelter is built.
Officials from Bridge to Home told KHTS they were aware of the potential legal action, but declined to comment until a lawsuit was filed.
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the career City Council members could have made major strides to help the homeless. Instead they chose not to deal with the crisis. Time to clean house and bring in some new City Council members that don’t have agendas.
How can you say they haven’t dealt with homelessness? The city donated land for a year-round shelter. And there are other resources in the SCV to help. Hopefully they can be directed to those resources.
How can you say the city hasn’t dealt with homelessness? They donated land (worth $1 mil) for a year-round homeless shelter.
The city council is doing a great job. This is a huge problem that is growing daily, in case you didnt notice. Take a good look around Newhall or the Santa Clarita river wash. Many of these people are mentally unstable and dangerous, and the “homeless” are abusing our community areas. Heroin needles have been found in children’s playgrounds and Newhall park’s public bathrooms are being used for “shooting up “! These people do not have the entitlement to trash, poop, abuse drugs and scream at my children at a public park that I pay taxes for. They need to be in structured service organizations that can help them and we can have no tolerance to let them be uncivil or live like stray dogs . If you are complaining about these tough actions by city council, I would suggest you clean your own house to make room for these homeless to live with you.
The city council is doing a great job. This is a huge problem that is growing daily, in case you didnt notice. Take a good look around Newhall or the Santa Clarita river wash. Many of these people are mentally unstable and dangerous, and the “homeless” are abusing our community areas. Heroin needles have been found in children’s playgrounds and Newhall park’s public bathrooms are being used for “shooting up “! These people do not have the entitlement to trash, poop, abuse drugs and scream at my children at a public park that I pay taxes for. They need to be in structured service organizations that can help them and we can have no tolerance to let them be uncivil or live like stray dogs . If you are complaining about these tough actions by city council, I would suggest you clean your own house to make room for these homeless to live with you.
You’re so ignorant to generalize a group of homeless people. Not every homeless person is a bad person on drugs. As for mentally ill people- there is a percentage who are victims of abuse and have been forced to commit crimes to prevent lives from being murdered. Keep your mouth shut when not knowing facts you discriminating nazi. It’s not like you’re so rich and should be harrassing the poor. Consider yourself classless in comparison to the homeless who aren’t targeting someone like you stalker.