(KRON) — A coalition of homeless folks, advocates, the California Homeless Union, and non secular organizations filed a federal civil rights lawsuit towards the Metropolis of Fremont. The lawsuit challenges a brand new metropolis ordinance that “criminalizes homelessness,” in keeping with the coalition.
Fremont’s ordinance bans tenting on public property, outlaws possessing tenting gear, and permits town to high quality individuals who assist set up encampments. Public property consists of metropolis streets, sidewalks and parks.
The Metropolis Council accredited the ordinance in February.
“With this anti-camping law, Fremont has made it illegal for its unhoused residents to exist within city limits,” stated Jason Serris, president of Marin Housing for All Basis. “Even possessing something as essential as a sleeping bag is now a crime.”
Greater than 800 homeless folks dwell in Fremont, in keeping with town’s newest depend in 2024.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of California. The go well with claims that the anti-camping guidelines mark an “ugly chapter” within the metropolis’s historical past.
A number of plaintiffs named within the lawsuit are homeless. Kent Eaton has been homeless for 22 years and lives off $670 in month-to-month welfare checks, the go well with states. Eaton lives inside a tent that is wrapped by a tarp, and each objects got to him by an area church. He depends on native church buildings for necessities like blankets, water, and meals.
Coalition leaders stated Fremont plans to now punish church buildings and nonprofits that assist folks like Eaton.
The ordinance targets anybody who’s “causing, permitting, aiding, abetting or concealing” an encampment. Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan stated town is not going to punish people who find themselves attempting to assist the homeless by giving them assets like water, however it can punish those that attempt to assist arrange encampments and makeshift wood buildings.
Andrea Henson, co-counsel for the California Homeless Union, stated, “The City is not only criminalizing poverty but also attacking those who live out their faith through service. This ordinance is an assault on compassion, community, and justice.”
One other plaintiff, Corrine Griffith, is a homeless lady who suffers from a number of persona dysfunction and epilepsy. She has been a sufferer of violent crime and terrorized by an East Bay avenue gang that killed her husband, the go well with claims. Griffith not too long ago suffered a life-threatening seizure and he or she was rescued by mates who dwell in her encampment. She claims that she grew to become homeless after a landlord embezzled lease funds.
The lawsuit states that Griffith and Eaton are “involuntarily homeless.”
Fremont-Homeless-LawsuitDownload
With out assets from church buildings, charities, and nonprofits, town’s homeless inhabitants will undergo from being uncovered to the weather, sickness, and untimely dying, the coalition claims.
Metropolis councilmembers declined to remark in regards to the lawsuit.
