Michael Zajec stands near a tent he’s shared with his girlfriend at a homeless encampment city officials in Half Moon Bay plan to clear out in the coming months.
A proposal to charge homeless with misdemeanors after two written warnings and two offers of shelter are declined will be considered by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.
If adopted, anyone contacted for illegally camping on public property in the unincorporated areas of the county could be charged, but those charges would be eligible for diversion programs offered by Superior Court and jail time would be avoided. Under the ordinance proposal, an encampment is defined as a tent, makeshift structure or collection of belongings in a place not meant for habitation and where the person responsible for them plan to stay with no plans to move, according to a county press release.
Under the ordinance, an encampment cannot be dismantled unless the county has shelter available for each person living there. The county monitors bed availability daily and will hold beds for 72 hours for individuals once the decision to clear an encampment is made.
“This ordinance is not meant to criminalize homelessness or penalize those who believe there are no other options,” board President Warren Slocum, who is introducing the proposal with Supervisor Dave Pine, said in the release.
“Rather, our intent is to encourage our neighbors experiencing homelessness to accept our offers of shelter and support. We also want to be mindful of the public hazards that illegal encampments on sidewalks and elsewhere can create. The goal is to create better opportunities all around.”
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The effort is formally known as the “Hopeful Horizons: Empowering Lives Initiative” and aimed at mitigating fire risks, unsanitary conditions and public safety and health hazards for the benefit of both those living in an unregulated encampment and the surrounding community, with a goal of moving individuals into shelter, according to the county.
Encampments are identified through Homeless Outreach Teams, street medicine teams and by resident or business reports, health and safety concerns, or if there has been an ongoing effort to engage those living in encampments. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the county has added 146 permanent supportive housing units and 409 individual units, according to the release.
“The county has worked hard to implement the goal of functional zero homelessness, whereby individuals experiencing homelessness have access to appropriate shelter opportunities,” Pine said in the release. “This proposal helps incentivize individuals to take advantage of these opportunities in a compassionate way, while also regulating critical operational details.”
The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that in 2023, there were 1,859 homeless in the county. The Board of Supervisors will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23. The full agenda and link to the Zoom meeting is available at https://sanmateocounty.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx.
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