Orange County can now arrest and fine unhoused individuals immediately for camping along flood control channels, in county parks or on other county-owned land. The new policy was approved by the O.C. Board of Supervisors on Tuesday by a 4-1 vote, despite concerns Santa Ana could be forced to contend with an increase in unhoused people booked and released from the county’s main jail.
It marks a shift in addressing homelessness that has been echoed in cities and counties across California and the West since a major Supreme Court ruling last year. That ruling, Grants Pass v. Johnson, reversed a ban on criminalizing people for sleeping in public places if no adequate shelter bed was available.
Orange County’s new policy also reverses some parts of a 2019 legal settlement, which has partially expired, that required the county to screen unhoused people for mental health and other needs and to offer shelter and services before arresting or ticketing them for violating anti-camping and loitering laws. That settlement triggered a major boost in the county’s inventory of shelter beds and permanent supportive housing since local officials had to prove shelter was available in order to enforce anti-camping rules.
What supporters say
O.C. officials who support the new approach say the county will not abandon its current policy of sending social workers out with sheriff’s deputies to offer shelter and other assistance to unhoused people camping on county property…