“Every unhoused individual out here right now is walking on death row. You have now signed every unhoused individual experiencing homelessness in Fresno city their death certificate.”
—Advocate Dez Martinez
“Anti-Living” Ordinances
On July 26, Fresno County Supervisor Steve Brandau introduced a harsh anti-camping ordinance that basically bans all unhoused people from being anywhere at any time in the county 24 hours a day. The next day, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, flanked by City Council Members Miguel Arias, Tyler Maxwell and Garry Bredefeld announced the same type of ordinance for the city.
Both ordinances codify that no person can sit, lie, sleep or camp in public places at any time.
Both ordinances call for arrests, fines of up to $1,000 per occurrence, and jail time for up to a year, at the cost of about $100 a day, or $36,500 per year, per unhoused individual prosecuted. There will be additional, as yet unknown, court and policing costs.
Ignoring the People
On July 29, after a lengthy public hearing where dozens spoke in opposition to the ordinance and only one person spoke for it (the City also received more than 30 online comments in opposition), the Council voted 7-0 to move forward. There will be a final vote on Aug. 15. The County will vote on codifying its ordinance on Aug. 6.
The advocate community is encouraging members of the public who have a heart to attend both meetings. The mayor and Council are calling for implementation on Sept. 15. If passed on Aug. 6, the County will also move quickly to implement its version.
More than 175 people attended the special City Council meeting. Many who spoke told heart-wrenching stories of fleeing domestic violence, being raped on the streets of Fresno, being robbed and beaten and suffering hunger, harsh weather conditions and other things no human being should have to endure.
Almost all of the street family members who spoke, and there were many, testified that HART, the Fresno Police Department’s Homeless Assistance Response Team, has stolen their survival gear and personal possessions and thrown away important documents, in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Many elderly and disabled people spoke against the ordinance. Several unhoused families with children spoke of the immense struggle to find affordable housing. They spoke of how hard they work to provide for their children, yet still can’t afford rent. Many expressed great fear of losing their children if they wind up on the streets.
Dez Martinez, in an online appeal to the public said that “sleep deprivation and starvation is the way our local leaders want us to die. They should be charged with cruel and unusual punishment for the extreme abuse, neglect and mental illness this will cause. They offer no housing, no shelter, no help!
“They continue to lie and say there are no children out there when they all know; I call them all the time about needing help. They know how many die out here on our streets; they call it natural causes, but being homeless is not a natural cause or a way to die.
“They lie to you and tell you that there are resources that people are not taking. Ask them, and demand they tell you what resources we are not using.”
Opportunist Propaganda and the Facts
The six so-called liberals on the City Council joined forces with conservatives Dyer and Bredefeld to misrepresent the issues, even using degrading descriptions of defecation and urination when talking about unhoused people. View the meeting on YouTube (youtube.com/live/gJeGocabLMA) and hear for yourself how the Council and mayor dehumanize and attempt to criminalize the poorest of the poor.
All of them claimed that many unhoused folks do not want services or housing. This reporter goes out and talks to people and rarely finds anyone who does not want permanent, affordable and dignified housing.
How the Ordinance Reinforces Racism
A comprehensive and well-documented 2023 study and report on homelessness in California by UCSF found that poverty is the main cause of homelessness. It also found that more than 50% of the unhoused in California are age 50 or older. The study found that minority populations are disproportionately overrepresented in the unhoused population.
The mayor and Council members Arias, Maxwell and Bredefeld are promoting an ordinance that bullies the elderly, and the poorest of the poor, and the entire Council supports it. The mayor and Council are attacking the most vulnerable human beings in Fresno. In addition, the ordinance, if implemented, will affect minorities more than anyone else. This ordinance will further institutionalize racism.
In a 2019 Urban Institute report, Fresno ranks No. 59 of 59 cities in California for economic inclusion and racial inclusion.
Across the United States, Fresno ranks 253rd out of 274 cities on overall inclusion. It ranks 263rd on economic inclusion. Inclusion is defined by looking at income differences in poverty and wages by race and ethnicity, the number of working poor people, disparities in homeownership and the number of families that spend more than 35% of their income on rent. Sadly, nothing in Fresno seems to have changed since 2019.
The 2023 Point-in-Time count found that Indigenous people (1.3% of the population, 7% of the city’s unhoused), Black people (6.6% of the population, 16% of the city’s unhoused) and non-white Hispanic people (51% of the city’s unhoused) are overrepresented on the streets of Fresno.
Fresno First
The proposed ordinance will criminalize the basic human need to sleep. As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently said in a recent Supreme Court decision, “Where do we put them if every city, every village, every town lacks compassion and passes a law identical to this? Where are they supposed to sleep? Are they supposed to kill themselves, not sleep?”
Fresno is one of the first cities attempting to implement such a harsh no-camping order since the Supreme Court decision.
Authoritarianism and the Ordinance
What this ordinance does is establish local authoritarianism and resembles what authoritarian states have done historically. One example is 1933 Germany.
In 1933, the Nazi Party passed a law “against Habitual and Dangerous Criminals,” which allowed for the relocation of beggars, homeless and the unemployed to concentration camps. The Nazis planned their first big roundup of the homeless almost as soon as they came to power.
In July 1933, the recently founded Reich Ministry of Propaganda was urging a nationwide swoop on beggars, informing the welfare agencies of its intention in August 1933. The raid was preceded by a carefully orchestrated propaganda campaign. Guidelines were issued to the press, portraying the forthcoming action quite cynically as an addition to the recently inaugurated Winter Aid Programme (motto: “No one will freeze or starve”).
This reporter is not directly comparing the mayor and Council action to what Nazi Germany did, however, if one examines the issue, the parallels are evident.
More Misrepresentation
At the special meeting, Council Member Arias and others made statements about the City spending more than $400 million on shelters and services that must be corrected. First, it was state and federal money squandered on shelters where shelter providers provided no, or little, help to shelter residents to get into permanent housing.
People were and are now being exited back to the streets for, sometimes minor, rule violations. Some are being exited after 90, or even 30 days. No permanent housing has been built. All of the $400 million went to temporary shelters and various services. Both nonprofit providers and some for-profit developers benefited immensely from the state and federal influx of funds.
Arias claims the City funded and opened warming centers; yes, for three days last winter. He brags about opening cooling centers; yes, at 105 degrees. The mayor and Council claim there are abundant mental health and addiction services available that people refuse. This is the biggest misrepresentation, and the mayor and Council know it.
Taking Action!
E-mail and call the Fresno Mayor’s Office and all the Fresno City Council members to reconsider their support for this extremely reactionary, authoritarian ordinance. E-mail and call the Board of Supervisors and ask them to refuse to support their equivalent ordinance. It just doesn’t make sense, and it is immoral.
I’ve been wondering when someone would propose building gas chambers for a final solution to the homeless problem. But that would take courage. These city leaders don’t kill people–they just push them towards death.
Basic Christianity says take care of the poor. Who said to go out of your way to make their lives more difficult?
I bet the city leaders were sitting down when they voted on this. And on public property. They should be arrested for breaking their own law.
Having been homeless for many years, your article is most accurate . The homeless services take the money and the ” resource providers” just hand out a piece of paper with a list of the county or church run centers.
What if we don’t do drugs, but can’t afford $1000 rent?
The only solace to this cruel joke is that because society refused to deal with the actual causes of mass homelessness, think, 2008 bank bailout and subsequent coorporation take over of housing stock being one, there is going to be a whole lot of new homeless people rolling onto these streets.
Sorry for the run on sentence.