Most west coast cities have wrongly concluded that Martin v. Boise prohibits cities from banning camping. Here is that brief opinion from the Ninth Circuit:
“We consider whether the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment bars a city from prosecuting people criminally [emphasis added] for sleeping outside on public property when those people have no home or other shelter to go to. We conclude that it does.”
The discussion of civil rights in the case summary reiterates this criminal aspect of prosecution – “…the government cannot criminalize [emphasis added] indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors…” In its reference to the Eighth Amendment, the court again emphasizes criminality by holding that “…an ordinance violates the Eight Amendment insofar as it imposes criminal [emphasis added] sanctions…”
One of the facts stated in Boise is that the plaintiffs were “…denied access to the City’s shelters.” It appears that shelter beds were available but one was refused by a plaintiff, because he was required to take part in a religious program operated by the shelter. “Stay limits” were also mentioned as a reason for being denied shelter, however, this again involved a refusal to participate in the shelter’s religious program. Interestingly, the following is noted in the Procedural History – “there has not been a single night when all three shelters in Boise called in to report they were simultaneously full for men, women or families.” Thus, the plaintiff denied the offer of shelter because of his religious beliefs.
A municipality can ban camping, particularly in sensitive habits such as the American River Parkway. What a city, county or state cannot do is criminally prosecute those who sleep outside on public property. Obviously, this leaves a whole basket of other laws which can, when violated, be prosecuted, and camps can be moved off the Parkway. But the City of Sacramento has refused to protect sensitive habitats and the tax-paying public through its misinterpretation of Boise and has allowed countless crimes to be committed within the City and the Parkway (technically, the Parkway is under County jurisdiction). Most egregious of which has been the destruction of forests and wildlife in the Parkway resulting from illegal camp fires, and the extensive pollution and trash resulting from these camps. By way of example, Sacramento County park maintenance crews removed 109 tons of trash from the illegal encampments at Bannon Island on the Sacramento River earlier this year. This is right next to Discovery Park (itself inundated with hidden trash) where many recreate at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers.
Cottonwood Forest destroyed by fire from homeless camp
Oddly, municipalities have ignored this observation made by the court in Boise– “Our holding is a narrow one. Like the Jones panel, ‘we in no way dictate to the City that it must provide sufficient shelter for the homeless, or allow anyone who wishes to sit, lie, or sleep in the streets…at any time and at any place.’” The Jones reference is to a case against the City of Los Angeles.
My point is that Sacramento has used the American River Parkway as a dumping ground for its homeless problem – and in the process, willfully ignored the ongoing damage to life (including the homeless) and the environment – all the while using dubious legal interpretations as cover. Homeless camps should be across from City Hall, in front of court houses and the California Capitol and other government buildings, and in Gavin Newsom’s neighborhood – not in the American River Parkway. Politicians must be forced to confront this crisis every day they go to go work, because as long as the true extant of the destruction is hidden from them, and taxpayer money is spent, they will wrongly assume that progress is being made.
That Eighth Amendment? Here it is in full – “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
“I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep:
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
Begin it with weak straws: what trash is Rome,
What rubbish and what offal, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Caesar!”
-William Shakespeare