Santa Rosa to consider regulations on where homeless camps can be set up

Santa Rosa is considering new regulations that would limit where unhoused people can set up tents and establish rules for outdoor camping on public property when no alternative shelter is available.

The rules would replace a blanket ban on camping on public and private properties in city limits that has been in place for nearly 30 years. That prohibition is unenforceable under a 2019 federal appellate court ruling.

City Hall administrators hope the proposed changes bring the city’s camping ordinance into compliance with Martin v. City of Boise, which prohibits municipal governments from clearing encampments without first offering shelter to people experiencing homelessness.

It will also help city officials address fire hazards, particularly at encampments in high-risk areas, reduce trash and biological waste that can pollute city creeks and drains and keep public spaces clean and safe.

Council member Chris Rogers, whose District 5 takes in most of the downtown, said the city has sought to strike a balance between addressing homelessness in a compassionate manner while also protecting the health and safety of the entire community.

The ordinance will better equip the city to address concerns without arbitrarily criminalizing unhoused residents, he said.

“We know the community is tired of some of the negative aspects that have come from encampments and this is our attempt to address that within the limits of the law,” he said.

The City Council will discuss the proposal during a public hearing slated to start at or after 5 p.m. Tuesday.

An estimated 1,658 unhoused residents lived in Santa Rosa last year, just more than half of the total countywide homeless population. A city-by-city breakdown from the latest annual census conducted earlier this year has not yet been released.

Santa Rosa’s update is the latest in a series of efforts by Sonoma County and local cities to curb unsanctioned camping as they also try to ramp up production of interim and permanent housing.

The Rohnert Park City Council last summer passed a similar set of rules restricting where people can camp and imposed additional rules at city-managed camps to address health and safety concerns.

In April, Sonoma County approved an ordinance that restricts camping on county property or public property within unincorporated areas between 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and defines where tents can be set up.

Gail Simons, a member of the Homeless Action advocacy group, said the ordinance is too restrictive and doesn’t clearly show where people can camp, a criticism that has also been lodged against the county’s policy.

Santa Rosa’s overnight camping ordinance first took effect in 1994 and prohibited people from living in their vehicles — a response to cries for help from frustrated residents who reportedly felt unsafe following a surge in people camping in their cars in neighborhood streets in the early 1990s, according to media reports from the time.

It also banned tent camping on public and private property.

The rules have been amended several times over the years and the city in 2013 repealed the ban on vehicle camping and instead implemented rules regulating how long cars can be parked on the street.

The proposed regulations would limit where people can camp and store belongings. Places where camping would be banned include:

If the city is unable to move people into another shelter, unhoused residents who set up camp outdoor on public property would have to adhere to a set of conduct rules under the proposed regulations.

Rules include:

Camping on private property is allowed with written permission from the owner and only within residential areas and the proposal places limits on where and how long someone can stay on the property.

Violations would be considered misdemeanors punishable by arrest or fines but police would have discretion to designate violations as an infraction which carry a lesser penalty. Violations would also be considered a public nuisance, which would allow code enforcement officers to address issues through an administrative process.

The proposal doesn’t address prolonged vehicle camping on city streets.

City staff have reported finding piles of debris and trash, hazardous materials and unsafe electrical connections at encampments.

The Santa Rosa Fire Department responded to 250 encampment-related fires in 2022 that caused an estimated $1.5 million in property damage, according to city data.

The issues pose a health and safety hazard to those living within the encampments and the surrounding neighborhoods and have required an increase in city resources to maintain public areas, according to a staff report prepared ahead of the meeting.

Though the Martin ruling sets certain limitations on cities’ ability to clear camps, the decision allows cities to place parameters on where and when camping is allowed, city housing staff said.

Police and code enforcement officers enforce other rules related to trespassing and dumping in and around encampments, but the new regulations could provide city officials with another tool to break up unauthorized homeless gatherings, prevent new camps from sprouting in parts of the city and clean up existing camps.

“Such regulations are focused on addressing the negative impacts of encampments and related public safety issues rather than targeted at harassing or punishing unsheltered persons,” Megan Basinger, the city’s Housing and Community Services director, wrote in the staff report.

Rogers said the rules, coupled with greater investments in street outreach, homelessness services and the addition of shelter beds and interim housing, could help move more people into permanent housing.

“If we’re going to be successful in getting people off the street, we need to give them an opportunity to get settled in a place where they can get (services),” he said. “Unsanctioned, unmanaged encampments don’t do that.”

But Simons countered that rather than helping people move into alternative shelters the new rules could further displace people and push them into more hazardous or remote corners of the city and county.

Until substantially more shelter beds are added regionwide, such policies are too punitive, she said.

“This makes it impossible for anyone to live outside and I wouldn’t mind that if there were enough facilities that provide safe and reasonable accommodations for people who are unsheltered,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or [email protected]. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.

Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park city reporter

Decisions made by local elected officials have some of the biggest day-to-day impacts on residents, from funding investments in roads and water infrastructure to setting policies to address housing needs and homelessness. As a city reporter, I want to track those decisions and how they affect the community while also highlighting areas that are being neglected or can be improved.