Title
Study Session regarding homelessness, encampments, recreational vehicle campers and anchor out vessels. (Sharon Ranals, City Manager; Captain Adam Plank, South San Francisco Police Department)
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council conduct a study session regarding homelessness, encampments, recreational vehicle campers, and anchor out vessels.
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BACKGROUND
This study session serves to provide the City Council and the South San Francisco community with data, policy, and case law at the federal, state, regional, and local levels on homelessness. Homeless encampments, recreational vehicle campers (RVs) parked on public streets and lots, and anchor out vessels moored in open waterways are all elements of the homelessness challenge.
Federal Case Law
MARTIN V. BOISE
This case has been much discussed in the news and in local government circles, but it is helpful to have the scope of the ruling in mind while reading about the Grants Pass decision (explained below) and the current state of constitutional restrictions on local regulation of various homelessness issues. In Martin v. Boise, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers California, considered the constitutionality of applying two city ordinances to individuals experiencing homelessness. The first ordinance prohibited the use of "streets, sidewalks, parks or public places" as a camping place. The second ordinance banned "[o]ccupying, lodging, or sleeping in any building, structure, or public place, whether public or private." The Ninth Circuit held that criminal enforcement of the ordinances violated the United States Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, which is contained in the Eighth Amendment, when individuals had no access to shelter within that jurisdiction. The Ninth Circuit reasoned that the acts of "sitting, lying, and sleeping" are "unavoidable consequences of being human," and "the state may not criminalize conduc...
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