Rohnert Park are new regulations that would restrict where other homeless people can camp and prohibit certain pieces from being stored in encampments on public property.
Infractions would be treated as misdemeanors, punishable by criminal terms or high fines, rather than as civil offenses.
City directors hope the proposed adjustments and enhanced enforcement efforts will address the issues of waste accumulation, accessibility for emergency services and fire threat mitigation in homeless encampments.
The city’s existing camping ordinance prohibits camping in the city, but it cannot be enforced after a 2018 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling found it unconstitutional to ban encampments without offering shelter to the homeless.
About 250 homeless citizens in Rohnert Park, Sonoma County’s third-largest city, there is still no permanent shelter.
The proposed update to the order comes weeks after a two-alarm chimney on July 11 at a giant debris-filled campground in Oakland, which Rohnert Park principals say illustrates the significant threat of the chimney and the need for more regulations. in the wake of last week’s two small chimneys in Santa Rosa that authorities say began in homeless encampments.
On July 25, the Santa Rosa Fire Department responded to a chimney that burned down a small parcel owned by a village on Stony Point Road near Mesa Way. The Hilton Sonoma Wine Country hotel, which was destroyed in the Tubbs chimney in 2017.
On July 26, the Rohnert Park City Council gave the green light to replace the city’s camping ordinance, but the proposed adjustments left some citizens without further action from the city.
“It looks on paper, but it will never happen,” Raquel Guinn, a longtime resident, told lawmakers at the meeting.
The Council will review the new one at its meeting on the ninth of August and, if approved, the regulation will enter into force on 8 September.
Similar regulations have been passed in other localities in the state, he said.
Rohnert Park lately bans overnight camping in parks and camping around wells, but the city needs to further restrict places where other homeless people can set up their tents.
The proposed regulation would prohibit camping and storing non-public belongings on the street, sidewalk and right-of-way if it interferes with the movement of pedestrians, bicycles or cars or interferes with a structure or other activity for which the town has issued a permit.
Campgrounds will be within 10 feet of a driveway or loading dock, within five feet of a construction entrance, or within 2 feet of a chimney hydrant or other chimney decomposer connection, as part of the proposal.
Director of Developmental Services Mary Grace Pawson said the regulations are intended for public safety, decrease the threat of vehicle or bicycle collisions at campgrounds and make it less difficult for first responders to access buildings and hydrants.
Pawson said the proposed regulations violate the court’s ruling because they come with a blanket ban on camping.
Staff had thought about banning camping in some areas of the city, but did not give advice until the structure of a 60-unit house for the city’s homeless citizens was completed.
In addition to designating where campgrounds can be set up, regulations are proposed that would restrict the duration of encampments and the pieces allowed in encampments on city property, such as the sanctioned homeless encampment in the fenced suburban parking lot on Roberts Lake Road.
Pawson said city workers discovered several tents protected under giant tarps, making it difficult for first responders to reach the domain in the event of a medical emergency or a chimney. They discovered propane tanks, fuel cylinders, stacked wood and stacked tangled electrical wires, causing a chimney. Feces and other biohazardous debris have also been reported.
The camp, which has about a hundred tents since the city government first allowed homeless citizens to move there in February, is the largest in the county.
4 fires have been reported since March, Pawson said.
Pawson said more regulations are needed for the accumulation of non-public belongings and waste, biologically hazardous waste and the garage of flammable objects.
Proposed regulations include:
Infractions would be considered crimes punishable by arrest or fines, but the police would have the discretion to designate the infractions as a crime, resulting in a lesser penalty. through an administrative process.
Pawson said infractions are now crimes punishable by subpoenas and fines, however, this has not been an effective enforcement strategy. Increasing the penalty can make enforcement more effective, he said.
Residents who spoke to the council’s public comments said they were fed up with the trash strewn on the street, walking trails and streams.
They examined the proposed nozzle regulation and said more regulations would make no difference.
Guinn, who has lived in Rohnert Park for 50 years, said she wishes she could raise her grandchildren in a community. While he has compassion for the homeless, he said, the city deserves to pay more attention to the wishes of resident taxpayers. .
“We hire or vote for all of you to have compassion and respect for our desires and longings as well,” he said. “All I hear is what we want to do to make those other people feel safe, to them. “
Guinn and others asked the council to ban the camps and said they were tired of hearing the elect say their hands were tied.
“I know you feel like your hands are tied because of all those restrictions. . . but that’s why we voted for you to do something about it and not be here and allow those other people to stay there,” he said.
Council members rejected the complaint and said they were doing what they could under the law. They also expressed frustration with the scenario and lack of equipment to combat homelessness due to court rulings, pandemic guidelines, and statewide legislative adjustments that have made it more difficult to prosecute some property and drug-related crimes.
“I wouldn’t want anything bigger than taking a bus and carrying it with other people who make this kind of mess in the city and taking them somewhere where they can do it and not disturb the contributing citizens of a network that everyone has agreed to live according to a safe social structure like the one we have in our city. ” said Councilwoman Susan Hollingsworth-Adams.
Officials have made progress in reducing the number of camps in the city and have worked to clean up the camps and decrease vandalism and other crimes, he said. Since 2019, the city has earmarked more than $4 million for homeless services, cleared more than 80 campgrounds and discovered permanent or transitional shelter for more than 120 people, according to the town.
“To say the city is doing nothing is a slap in the face to each and every worker who does more than their fair share,” Hollingsworth-Adams said.
Councilman Gerard Giudice said his business had been stolen and he understood the residents’ concerns. Housing with facilities is the only way to combat homelessness and the city is working to build more units, he said.
He said more state investments and state-level measures to combat homelessness are needed to make a difference and that, in the meantime, the city will take the necessary steps to address health and protection issues.
You can succeed at editor Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina. pineda@pressdemocrat. com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.
Santa Rosa, journalist from the town of Rohnert Park
Decisions made through local elected officials have some of the biggest daily effects on residents, from investments in roads and water infrastructure to putting in place policies to address housing desires and homelessness. As a municipal journalist, I need to adhere to those decisions and have an effect on the network while highlighting spaces that are overlooked or can be improved.
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