On Dec. 12, Morro Bay City Council intended to vote on three new ordinances to address the city’s growing homeless encampment problem.
“This situation is a large, serious public health and safety problem,” resident Loyce Tobler said via public comment letter.
Approval of one of the proposals—an urgency ordinance—would have given the city immediate authority to remove large encampments within city limits that were considered public health risks due to drug paraphernalia and/or human waste that could wash away in the rain.
“Failure to adopt the ordinances will predictably see a steady increase in an ongoing and continuing drain on city resources, time, and money,” the staff report said. “This is from ever-increasing city staff responses to the growing public health, safety, and welfare harms generated by lack of regulations like those in the proposed ordinances.”
To pass the urgency ordinance—expected to cost the city $50,000 to enforce—the council needed a minimum 4-1 vote. However, due to issues with Zoom teleconferencing, the portion of the meeting discussing the ordinances was moved to Dec. 13, after New Times went to press.
The other two ordinances were intended for the council to discuss and bring back for a formal vote. One focused on continued enforcement on large encampments beyond the scope of the emergency ordinance. With it, the council would formalize rules on the location, size, and occupancy of encampments throughout the city.
If the individuals in the encampments did not follow these rules, the staff report said, the city would have the authority to remove them as long as encampment residents were given a 72-hour notice and recommendations for alternative shelter.
The third ordinance focused on homeless individuals camping in cars on private property. Should the council approve it, the ordinance would establish a 24-hour limit on single-location parking and requirements for property owners who hosted these individuals.
While some residents welcomed the change, Allison Brandum expressed in a public comment letter her concerns about recent the ordinances conflicting with recent court rulings on encampments.Â
In her public comment letter, Brandum quoted a line from a Cal Matters article that referenced the 2019 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Martin v. Boise prohibiting the criminalization of homeless individuals sleeping on public property when there isn’t adequate shelter available.
In 2023, another court case in the same circuit—Johnson v. Grants Pass—reaffirmed the Martin ruling, adding that enforcement was prohibited if the action would lead to criminal charges for the individual who didn’t move.
City staff said they felt confident the proposed ordinances didn’t conflict with the court rulings, adding that they were currently being appealed at the Supreme Court and could be subject to change.
Regardless of whether the council votes to approve the ordinances, Morro Bay resident Tobler said, the need for encampment cleanup won’t change.
“What these proposed local ordinances will do is assist everyone in supporting a safer, cleaner environment for the vast majority of citizens and businesses of Morro Bay,” Tobler said wrote. “We can then address services of housing, treatment, needs, and health as completely different project[s] directed to the under-housed population.” Δ
Editor’s note: This article was revised to clarify Allison Brandum’s citation of the Cal Matters article. This was done via public comment letter; she did not speak at the Dec. 12 Morro Bay City Council meeting.
This article appears in Last-Minute Gift Guide 2023.