Homeless encampments: Difference between revisions
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===Proposal for test lawsuit against Portland camping ban===
from [https://www.facebook.com/cory.elia.3/posts/1342210052632275?comment_id=1342429282610352 Tim McCormick, Comment, January 31, 2020], on [https://www.facebook.com/cory.elia.3/posts/1342210052632275 Facebook post by Cory Elia], inviting suggested questions to ask Mayor Wheeler at upcoming homelessness forum. [see: Street Roots, "[https://news.streetroots.org/2020/01/31/mayor-host-portland-forums-about-homelessness Mayor to host Portland forums about homelessness.]" 31 Jan 2020]: <blockquote>''"I'd ask, like Mike O'Callaghan's question: how could Portland create adequate, sanctioned, shelter and/or camping areas for all homeless residents, in order for the city's campsite clearances to be defensible against constitutional challenges following from the 9th Circuit's Martin v Boise ruling? For example, if Portland's camping-restriction ordinance were challenged in Federal court?<br /> <br /> "You may be able to ask the Mayor this or some question, but it doesn't seem that these very managed public fora are much likely to shift the Mayor/City's policy on, say, sweeps. In terms of the classic Arnstein "Ladder of Citizen Participation" model, these fora are probably low on the ladder. But I imagine other efforts/strategies are in play, what are they and where are those conversations happening?<br /> <br /> "As my question suggests, a strategy I might suggest [though I Am Not a Lawyer] is to develop a test case something like original Martin v. Boise case: find someone penalized by city's anti-camping ordinance, who undeniably endured harm during actions enforcing the ordinance, and faces concrete, imminent risk of harm from future such enforcement action. Then file suit in Federal district court against the city seeking prospective relief and a permanent injunction enjoying the City from enforcing the ordinances.<br /> <br /> "Federal district court in Oregon is bound by 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rulings, ie Martin v Boise, so if we got to this point it might look like the suit had a chance to succeed and invalidate the camping ban. This might create sufficient leverage to make the City either suspend enforcement of the campsite ban, or modify the ordinance to meet constitutional muster, and possibly get the suit withdrawn.<br /> <br /> "Note, I imagine that groups such as [https://www.facebook.com/NLCHPhomeless/?hc_location=ufi National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty] and [https://www.facebook.com/aclu/?hc_location=ufi ACLU] and [https://www.facebook.com/ACLUofOregon/?hc_location=ufi ACLU of Oregon] are contemplating such legal strategies, and would know much more about it than my amateur legal hypothesizing does. I haven't yet seen anything from them along these lines, perhaps it's too soon after Supreme Court's denial of Martin v Boise appeal the other month.<br /> <br /> "Reference: An action like the suit above would be a case of moving UP on "A Ladder Of Citizen Participation," described by Sherry R. Arnstein, 1969, in Journal of the American Planning. Association, 35: 4, 216-224."''</blockquote>
===Groups / leaders involved===
Fight the Sweeps PDX (Facebook page)
https://www.facebook.com/FightTheSweepsPortland/
Commissioner Joann Hardesty
https://www.facebook.com/CommissionerHardesty/<nowiki/>,
==(6) Other cities ==
▲=== Philadelphia===
from Metraux et al 2019. "An Evaluation of the City of Philadelphia’s Kensington Encampment Resolution Pilot."
==(7) Guides/Proposals for encampment operation and response==
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Parr, Evanie and Rankin, Sara (2018). "It Takes a Village: Practical Guide for Authorized Encampments." Seattle University Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, May 3, 2018. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3173224.
===
<blockquote>''"Authorized Encampments:<br /> As with emergency shelters, authorized encampments are not a permanent solution to homelessness. Housing is the only permanent solution. But safe and lawful homeless encampments can be a critical interim measure for helping to unhoused people while housing options are pursued. '''Local governments should develop constructive encampment policies, including designating a sufficient number of adequate areas where homeless people may safely and lawfully camp and store their belongings. To reduce harm to homeless residents and the surrounding communities, encampments should be provided with trash service, water service, and other necessary services, like toilets.''' In addition, local governments should develop constructive policies for addressing existing homeless encampments modeled on federal guidance and our Encampment Principles and Best Practices. At a minimum, state and local governments should develop policies for cleaning public places that do not displace homeless people from public lands, nor result in the destruction of their belongings, when there is no adequate housing alternative. Our Encampment Principles are available in Appendix B of this report."''
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#End the illegal confiscation and destruction of unhoused neighbors’ personal property.
#
#End the use of cleaning as a pretext for harassment of unhoused people and establish productive, scheduled, regular, and well-publicized street and sidewalk cleaning where unhoused people reside.
#End the towing of vehicles that people are using as their homes.
▲===Services Not Sweeps (Los Angeles). ===
[[File:Services-Not-Sweeps-LA.jpg|thumb|right|Services Not Sweeps, LA]]
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2) Ensure all street and sidewalk cleaning is scheduled, regular, and well publicized
*
*Cleaning will be scheduled on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly timeframe, with a 2 to 4 hour window of time, similar to other City street cleaning services.
*Continue to post notices at and near each site prior to cleaning services, either 48 or 72 hours in advance.
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3) Ensure appropriate resources are in place in advance of and during all scheduled cleaning
*
* Outreach workers will be present on site the day before the clean-up and also thirty minutes before the cleanup begins to provide additional notice of cleanings. Outreach workers or other community members will be allowed at the clean up sites to help identify and assist individuals who need accommodations to move their belongings.
* City officials will ensure that the provision of appropriate resources extends to any informal shelter needs in extreme weather such as rain or heat, and will provide accommodations during street cleaning that occurs in extreme weather conditions.
*
4) Ensure an accountability system for City street and sidewalk cleaning procedures, including a complaint/grievance process and a response to any violations documented within three days.
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*Ensure that areas with significant homeless communities receive daily trash service.
*
2) Improve public health infrastructure beyond street cleaning efforts
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3) ''Implement the Guiding Principles and Practices'' for Local Responses to Unsheltered Homelessness across all areas and departments of the City, particularly Sanitation.
This document is solely focused on a public health and harm reduction approach to street and sidewalk cleaning. All endorsers agree on these recommendations. However, this document does not include the multiple changes urgently needed in Los Angeles Police Department policy that criminalize homelessness, poverty and communities of color far more broadly than in the street/sidewalk cleaning efforts, or other recommendations to improve health and respect all human and civil rights."</blockquote>
===Leilani Farha & Haseena Manek (2020)===
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<br /></blockquote>
===SF Coalition on Housing: Policy Paper - Safe and Dignified Sleep Spaces (April 2020)
ca. 15 April, 2020.<br /> <blockquote>'''"General Statement''':
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**Garbage service: Garbage, including recycling and compost, will be regularly serviced 1-2 times a week
**Access to drinking water
** Access to shared cooking facilities
*Legal camping areas should not include on-going police presence and/or surveillance
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*Structures should be low cost and mobile
*The community should be homeless people led, defined as:
** Self-determination on access into the safe and dignified sleep area
**Self-determined length of stay. While the space may be temporary; there should not be artificial time limits on stays while space is available, as these lead to increased instability and trauma.
**Self-governance, including a decision-making body that determines whether to have staff on site, off site or to not have staffing of encampments; however, any staffing on site should in no way interfere with self governance, nor should staff determine people being able to stay or not. Neither should this preclude paid positions of residents.
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"I believe that such a path of working out viable alternatives can helpfully draw on and pragmatically realize "right to housing" ideas. I.e. how might a city like Portland offer, at least on a trial basis, at least minimal rights of habitation to all unhoused residents, which might mean something like reasonable access to authorized safe areas, resident rights, right to self-shelter, etc. I imagine it might emerge as politically and/or pragmatically important to define *who* would be given these rights, e.g. anyone present in city, anyone with existing or prior residence in city, etc? Old questions, but I think good to engage anew."<br /></blockquote>The question here is immediate, practical, and actual, in that in May 2020, a coalition of North Portland neighborhood associations issued a "Joint Statement on Homelessness" proposing a citywide system of authorized camps/villages, along with prohibition of camping in parks, waterways and public paths. [see [[Portland village network]]].
This echoes the statement in NLCHP, "Housing Not Handcuffs" report [NLCHP 2019]: <blockquote>''"safe and lawful homeless encampments can be a critical interim measure for helping to unhoused people while housing options are pursued. '''Local governments should develop constructive encampment policies, including designating a sufficient number of adequate areas where homeless people may safely and lawfully camp and store their belongings."'''''</blockquote>Considering this from the standpoint of legal theory and international law, and the "right to housing", this angle might be considered aligned with the concept of '<nowiki/>'''minimum core'''<nowiki/>' socio-economic rights:<blockquote>"The concept of the 'minimum core' seeks to establish a minimum legal content for the notoriously indeterminate claims of economic and social rights. ''By recognizing the “minimum essential levels” of the rights to food, health, housing, and education'', it is a concept trimmed, honed, and shorn of deontological excess. ''It reflects a “minimalist” rights strategy, which implies that maximum gains are made by minimizing goals. It also trades rights inflation for rights-ambition, channeling the attention of advocates towards the severest cases of material deprivation and treating these as violations by states'' towards their own citizens or even to those outside their territorial reach. ''With the minimum core concept as its guide, economic and social rights are supposed to enter the hard work of hard law''." [italics emphases added - tm for housingwiki]. -[Young 2008] Young, Katharine G. (2008). "The Minimum Core of Economic and Social Rights: A Concept in Search of Content." ''The Yale Journal of International Law'', 33:113-175.</blockquote>See further discussion in article [[Right to housing]].
==References==
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Sand, Kaia. Tweet, Dec 17. https://twitter.com/mkaiasand/status/1207065461990383617.<br /> "Let's call on City Council to put the brakes on a new sweeps contract for Rapid Response. Give our community six months to present a constructive alternative. We certainly can do that. We can imagine a more humane city. https://www.portlandoregon.gov/auditor/article/749641 [link to info on proposed contract]."
Schmid, Thacher. "Oversight Questions Arise as Portland Pays to Clean Up Homeless Campsites." ''Portland Mercury'', Jun 6, 2019.<br /> https://www.portlandmercury.com/news/2019/06/06/26591451/oversight-questions-arise-as-portland-pays-to-clean-up-homeless-campsites
Services Not Sweeps (Los Angeles). "Our Demands". [https://servicesnotsweeps.com/ [1]]. Accessed 8 March, 2020.
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Zielinski, Alex (2019). "Acceptable Losses." [": Property lost in Portland's sweeps of homeless camps keeps the city's most vulnerable at a disadvantage"]. Portland Mercury, 5 Dec 2019. https://www.portlandmercury.com/feature/2019/12/05/27586044/acceptable-losses.
Zielinski, Alex (2019). "Homeless Advocates Push to Delay Camp Cleanup Contract." ''Portland Mercury'', 19 Dec 2019. [https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2019/12/19/27674115/homeless-advocates-push-to-delay-camp-cleanup-contract
<references />
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