Overview:
Fresno city officials introduced a new ordinance penalizing people for building encampments and sleeping in public spaces during a press conference on Friday. The ordinance is a revival of a similar ordinance passed in 2017, and comes a day after Fresno County introduced their own version.
The city’s ordinance is likely to pass, and will take effect this Sept.
Flexing their new powers, city leaders on Friday previewed a comprehensive policy to penalize and clear encampments in Fresno.
The City of Fresno held a news conference to introduce a new ordinance that will penalize people for building encampments and sleeping in public places — framing the legislation as a necessary response, and a culmination of years of anxieties shared by residents and businesses alike.
The city’s announcement comes a day after then Fresno County leaders introduced their own encampment ordinance, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order encouraging local governments to pursue such legislation. The legal right to pursue these powers comes after the Grants Pass U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
The news conference was attended by multiple high-ranking city officials — Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, city Councilmembers Miguel Arias, Garry Bredefeld and Tyler Maxwell, City Attorney Andrew Janz and interim police Chief Mindy Casto.
Arias opened the news conference by apologizing to residents who he said felt powerless for many years to do anything to solve their homeless woes before Grants Pass.
“As our city honored the rights of our homeless…that also had some unintended consequences,” Arias said. “It victimized the innocent residents whose neighborhoods were destroyed by those who refuse help and engage in criminal activity.”
This new plan is a revival of a 2017 city council ordinance that was stymied by now-overruled court orders, according to a city news release after the Friday conference.
The new ordinance gives violators 24-hours notice to leave and take their belongings from the public space. Failure to do so could lead to fines of up to $1,0000, plus the cost to keep and store any personal belongings. Further failure to comply with law enforcement could lead to a misdemeanor criminal charge, punishable by, up to a year in jail and other fines.
City leaders said law enforcement has “flexibility” when issuing these penalties, and they’ll be asked to make judgment calls when levying fines and jail time. Bredefeld said during the meeting that only especially troublesome members of the homeless community would be receiving the harshest penalties.
“I want to be clear,” said Bredefeld. “We want to help those who are homeless and truly want help to change their lives and lifestyles.
“But there’s a subculture of the homeless who want that toxic lifestyle regardless of the help offered to them,” Bredefled added. “They want to continue using drugs and alcohol.”
Bredefled continued to criticize “that lifestyle” by drawing attention to the San Joaquin Valley Free Medical Clinic And Needle Exchange program, which he said he “intends” to end — alluding to his upcoming November bid to unseat Steve Brandau as the Fresno County District 2 Supervisor. Brandau voted against the program in a 3-2 vote.
“If it takes a few tries to get the help you need, that’s OK. We’ll be here to help you,” Maxwell said. “If you don’t want the city’s help, that’s OK, too. But I hope you find that help somewhere else because our schools, parks and businesses are off-limits.”
The city touted its investment of “millions of dollars” toward programs and services as ways it has tried in good faith to reach out and help the homeless community before Grants Pass — like the warming and cooling centers and their mobile showers and bathrooms.
Dyer said the city has reduced homeless population count from 2022-2023, based on the most recent data from the Fresno-Madera Continuum of Care.
The 2024 data has still not been made available.
Dyer added that despite their best efforts, local governments like Fresno’s are “fed up” with their homeless problems. He also noted that, even with the reductions in the homeless population, the number of unhoused residents still outpaces the number of available shelter beds in the city — which he said is now up to about 800.
“Regardless of the availability of bed space in this community,” Dyer said, “we will hold our unsheltered population accountable and that could and will include arresting and taking them to jail if in fact they are in violation of the ordinance.”
When pressed for more background on guidance law enforcement and the courts have on bed and jail capacity, Dyer said it’s a police officer’s job to arrest people.
“As I used to tell our officers, don’t worry about the outcome. Don’t worry about whether or not there’s jail beds available,” Dyer said. “Your job is to arrest people who are in violation of law and to book them into jail, and it’s up to the jail to determine their capacity…and should they cite them out? Then that’s OK. That’s called disruption.”
Dez Martinez, a local homeless advocate and founder of unhoused advocacy group We Are Not Invisible, fought through emotions to tell Fresnoland she strongly disagreed with the city’s choice to introduce the ordinance — calling it a “death sentence.”
“What are they going to do with the families that I have out here with children that have been begging for bed space? What are they going to do? Arrest them? Put them in jail?” Martinez questioned. “They can go in for up to a year, $1,000 fine, and they’re going to have to pay all the fees that are incurred through court and arrest and all that stuff, right? …This is the most ignorant ordinance I’ve ever heard of in my life, and we’ve heard some really ignorant ones.
“I’m afraid of what’s going to happen…I’m sorry for the way I’m sounding, I’m just really trying to hold back my tears from anger and exhaustion…It’s just I’m fighting depression of knowing what’s going to happen.”
Dawn Turdivan, 57, and has lived unhoused for 17 years and currently stays around the West Olive and North Hughes.
“This is essentially a streamlined way to get the majority of what they consider lower-than full-magnum knuckle draggers in jail,” Turdivan said. “It’s inhumane.”
The Grants Pass ruling makes it clear that local governments do not need to have a shelter bed for every member of the unhoused before introducing such ordinances.
Dyer also made clear that while law enforcement may be called to respond to calls for encampment clearings, ordinance enforcement will be spearheaded by the city’s HART organization — a controversial task force advocates say “criminalize” homeless residents.
In another expansion of the city attorney’s office powers, the ordinance would also wrestle away the “control” to prosecute encampment and homeless-related cases away from the district attorney and give it to Janz and his office. Janz said he’d instruct his office to take a much more firm approach to these cases.
“I’m directing my prosecution team today to make sure that we don’t engage in any type of plea bargaining when it comes to these types of cases,” Janz said.
“If you accept services…help from the criminal justice system, then we’re going to go that route, but at the end of the day, we’re gonna need a stick as well,” Janz added. “And so if you’re not going to accept that help, we’re going to ask judges, we’re going to ask juries to impose the maximum sentence, especially for the repeat offenders who have been victimizing business owners that are standing behind us and everybody else in the community.”
Ed Noriego of Valley Remnants & Rolls on Blackstone was invited by the city to speak on behalf of the business community. Noriego described dealing with the homeless and encampments around his business as “difficult.”
“I’ve been threatened on numerous occasions,” Noriego said. “I don’t have a window in my building that hasn’t been broken out. Every single one is a new window now.”
Noriega said that he has felt unsafe when it gets dark, and that he makes an effort to not schedule employees to work alone during late hours. He also added that he has seen improved conditions after HART came to assist in clearing the area.
The ordinance will go before the city council in a special meeting at 11 a.m. Monday, July 19 before formally being introduced during their meeting on August 15. Should the ordinance pass, which it is fully expected to, its enforcement will begin on Sept 15.
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