While the city of San Diego prepares to begin enforcing a ban on homeless encampments, at least one attorney says it could face a legal challenge, and another California city already is fighting to enforce its own camping prohibition.
Ferbert said the case questions whether the Martin v. Boise decision requires sufficient shelter to house the entirety of the city’s unsheltered population in order to enforce a no-camping law. Critics of a homeless encampment ban held signs showing their opposition to the proposal Tuesday in the hours-long hearing before a divided City Council passed the measure.
But the memo issued a caveat: “As the courts have not established a test to evaluate the times or locations where camping may be prohibited when shelter is not available, Council should weigh the constitutional rights of unsheltered individuals against the City’s need to protect public health and safety in these specific locations.”
Will Knight, an attorney and decriminalization program director for the Washington, D.C.-based National Homelessness Law Center, said he sees problems with San Diego’s ordinance and the city attorney’s memo. Knight was referring to a section of the memo that reads: “Other jurisdictions have relied on Martin to ban camping in specific locations when shelter is not available, although this Office has not identified any jurisdiction that has banned camping in a broad area of the city.”