Fresno leaders stress ‘accountability’ as camping ban enforcement begins

Fresno city leaders are stressing a message of accountability, as one of the state’s most tough anti-encampment ordinances began enforcement Monday.

At a news conference on Monday, they provided clarifying details on their policy, emphasizing a “Treatment First Program” as an alternative to sending offenders of the camping ban to a nearly-full jail. 

The policy instructs law officers to use their discretion in offering “habitual offenders” the opportunity to skirt by ordinance penalties — which include monetary fines and possible jail time — by voluntarily accepting a treatment program from one of Fresno’s homelessness service providers, should a bed be available.

“If they choose that approach,” Dyer said, “The police report would be held in advance, and if they completed a program as determined by the treatment provider, that report would be disposed of.”

The Fresno City Attorney’s office will be the law agency prosecuting these cases.

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said the “new approach” on camping ban enforcement will provide the city’s police officers and outreach workers with the “tools necessary” to either offer help for the unhoused or properly penalize those who refuse services. 

“Our overall intent is to protect our businesses and our residents,” Dyer said at the conference. “At the same time getting help to the people who are in need of it…who are out there quite frankly in many days in inhumane conditions.”

City leaders did not specify which city-based groups would be providing treatment, or provide examples of what treatment would look like.

Dyer said this new policy is different from drug courts in that city workers will have a hand in funneling homeless residents to treatment programs. He said this was necessary since drug courts can sometimes take too long in taking on an individual’s case.

“Unfortunately, that could be many, many months before a person gets before the appropriate body or a judge,” Dyer said. “So we want to have some front-end version as well.” 

Fresno city leaders continue to say they engage in good faith with the local unhoused population. Councilmember Tyler Maxwell said the city has invested “nearly half a billion dollars” toward the community — including services like mobile showers, increasing the amount of available shelter beds and the UCSF mobile clinic.

“I would reckon that is a bigger investment that we’ve made into any other local population,” Maxwell said. “And understandably so, given how difficult homelessness can be to overcome.”

Maxwell also said that the city cannot be solely leaned on to solve Fresno’s homeless issues. The U.S. Supreme Court Grants Pass ruling allows local governments to penalize homeless residents without the need to provide services or housing to them.

“Tackling a community wide issue takes the efforts of more than just a single local government agency,” Maxwell said. “And it would be a mistake to believe that the only way out of homelessness is through a government-sponsored solution.”

“I’ve been a proud Democrat for most of my adult life,” Maxwell later added. “I believe government has a duty to meet people halfway where possible. However, if folks are unwilling to meet us halfway on a solution, and are unwilling to find a solution outside of government, we must seek other courses of action.”

The city’s anti-encampment ordinance will also apply to people sleeping in their vehicles, though officers will have flexibility on whether or not they enforce it. Maxwell said he will be asking the police to enforce the ordinance on individuals sleeping and camping in their vehicles in Rotary Park, a public space in his district.

Throughout the news conference, city leaders said the ordinance’s enforcement comes from a need for homeless individuals to take “accountability.”

“The fact is, every person is accountable for the choices they make in life, including those who have refused help and choose to live on the streets,” said Councilmember Garry Bredefeld. “Those who also choose to engage in drugs, criminal behavior, harass business owners or create unsafe and unhealthy conditions in our community, must be held accountable.”

Councilmember Miguel Arias said, “This, in my view, is their last chance to accept the city’s help for drug treatment. If not…they can be expecting to experience withdrawal symptoms in a county jail.”

City leaders also said the policy will prioritize homeless residents who are identified as “habitual offenders” or located in areas that are “problematic.” Dyer described habitual offenders as “…people that are occupying sensitive areas, people that have generated repeated calls for service to the police department, the people that quite often are the ones that are the most problem to businesses and neighborhoods.”

”Arias said that he sees spaces like railroads and canals, as well as sections of the city including the Belmont, Olive, Santa Clara and Shaw corridors as “at the tipping point of becoming a skid row.” 

Among the city leaders was Matt Dildine, CEO of Fresno Mission – a  faith-based organization in the city offering supportive services to homeless residents, as well as managing the City Center campus. Dildine said he believes that the homeless population in the state has ballooned due to the state going away from “prioritizing treatment as a homeless intervention.”

“When our drug courts were full, we had less homeless on the streets,” Dildine said.

Dildine levied criticism to Proposition 47, which he said led to an increase in homelessness due to the reduced penalties that came with certain drug offenses.

Proposition 47, which California voters passed in 2014, may likely be rolled back in the upcoming November election as Proposition 36 — which aims to increase penalties for certain criminal and drug offenses — is seeing bipartisan support among voters, according to a recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Interim Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto said law enforcement will go through training to understand the ordinance and feel “confident” and “comfortable” when exercising enforcement.

“It’s not to become cruel or unusual or to make arrests and clear the streets with sweeps,” Casto said. “ It’s to be less tolerant of individuals who are causing problems to our law-abiding citizens and businesses, but to also provide compassion and a chance for them to change their lives, if that’s what they so desire to do.”

Casto also said that patrol officers, specifically, can expect eight more hours of training soon. 

Maxwell also said that the city is willing to “get creative” in finding alternative solutions to help house individuals who are seeking resources that may be currently unavailable. 

City leaders said they may entertain talks of rent control in the future, but they ultimately view building and increasing the local housing supply– including market-rate and affordable units — as the more viable solution to solving the local homelessness and housing crises.

“What has been proven successful is when you increase the supply of housing that will meet or exceed the demand for housing, and that you can create that housing in an affordable fashion,” Dyer said. 

Studies from groups like the Pew Research Center show that increasing housing supply can be an effective way to slow down rent growth. However, Fresno has been lagging behind their national contemporaries in increasing their housing stock. Another study by Pew saw a correlation with the growth of Fresno’s  homeless population and the stagnation of their housing supply growth. 

The city has faced criticism from housing advocates and developers over their reluctance to approve some recent housing projects — including a rejected housing project in northeast Fresno last year, and one in northwest Fresno this year. 

Across the country there is a shortage of affordable rental units.

Dyer also said that the city’s anti-encampment ordinance will be “a piece of the puzzle” in helping solve Fresno’s homeless issues alongside local and national policies like California Proposition 1, which voters approved in March,  and the county’s CARE Court system, which is expected to be introduced by the end of the year.

The city’s ordinance begins enforcement Monday, 31 days after it was approved by the city. Though Fresno City Council approved the ordinance during their Aug.15 meeting, the mayor did not sign the ordinance until Aug.22, according to a city spokesperson. 

“If there’s anything people walk away from this news conference with, I want it to be that we’re not trying to take away a person’s freedom as a result of an arrest, we’re trying to restore them to some form of normalcy,” Dyer said. “…but there are times when people have to get uncomfortable before they can get comfortable.

“We want to help people,” Dyer said. “But in order to help people, sometimes there has to be some tough love.”