Redwood City can now fine homeless residents if an encampment isn't cleared out
After a 6-1 vote, the Redwood City Council passed the anti-camping ordinance that would establish a window of clearing out an encampment site before enforcing penalties.
"It was a really robust community engagement process," Redwood City Mayor Elmer Martinez Saballos, told CBS News Bay Area. "The process we set forth last night is really going to help us make sure that we never have to get to a place of enforcement and that we can connect people to housing and to shelter."
Adapting to a similar enforcement plan by San Mateo County, the city must now provide two warnings and offer shelter within a 72-hour period. If they do not move, the unhoused individual could be charged with a misdemeanor and be fined up to $500. If the encampment is within 200 feet of a school or the Navigation Center, they will have 48 hours to vacate the encampment.
Officials added that there will be a diversion program, and upon successful completion, can have their case dismissed.
Gloria Cohn, who lives on BAIR Island, said she and her neighbors are concerned about their safety after seeing several encampment sites pop up near their homes.
"People will sneak underneath there, light fires to stay warm, and then they get out of control. So, we had to call the Fire Department quite a few times," Cohn said.
She has been living in the neighborhood for 10 years and said she has been witnessing encampments pop up for about five to six years. Cohn shared videos with CBS News Bay Area, showing smoke from fires that started at the encampment sites near the Whipple Avenue offramp.
"As the fire department told me, all it takes is one ember to fly over and we have a disaster," she said.
The area near the offramp is divided between Caltrans and Redwood City property.
"We've contacted Caltrans; they're aware of the issue. I've contacted my state senator and my state assemblyperson. They know of the problem, but it hasn't been fixed for five years. We've suggested fences, and we've also suggested boulders so people can't access that area," she said.
Cohn is optimistic after City Council passed the anti-camping ordinance in Monday night's council meeting.
"I, of course, and my community would like stricter laws, because of the fire and the safety," she said.
She, along with dozens of neighbors, gathered at City Hall to support the ordinance. Many neighbors, however, were against it.
"We are creating fear. It doesn't make sense to criminalize people for being poor," Roberto Tito Alvarez, the founder of ChaseLove, said.
He leads a nonprofit organization that conducts outreach for the unsheltered in Redwood City.
"A lot of this is trauma that needs to be reviewed," he said. "Not come here and criminalize our community for the circumstances that they're in."
District Two Councilmember Chris Sturken, who also represents BAIR Island, was the only member who voted against the ordinance on Monday.
He shared his concerns as an individual as he is not authorized to speak on behalf of the city.
"While the ordinance is well-intentioned, it is misleading. I did not want to set the expectation for the community and for my neighbors in BAIR Island, for business community, that encampments are going to be cleaned up tomorrow. Because that's just not realistic," he said.
"This is not a solution to homelessness. It creates a revolving door where people are forced to go into shelter and when their time expires in the shelter, many of them end up right back on the street right where they started worse off than before," he added.
Instead, Sturken said the goal should be to build more affordable housing.
"Building more housing at all income levels. We have seen an economic slowdown, a slowdown of development proposals and we need to do everything we can to incentivize there to be new housing development in Redwood City. "We need stronger tenant protections to keep people from being unhoused to begin with."
As of June, officials said there are 141 unsheltered individuals living in Redwood City. They added, however, it's a 42% decrease when compared to the 2022 data of 245 unhoused individuals.
They make up about 15% of the total unhoused population in San Mateo County.
City officials also added that there are 29 total encampments recorded as of June.
"We can still do more to build affordable housing, to build permanent supportive housing, which the county is helping us look at maybe building sites through proposition 1," the mayor said.
"This is really about the 25% of our unhoused population who are just outright rejecting any sort of housing. That's who we're really talking about with this ordinance," he added.
City leaders also said that the cost for an encampment sweep, depending on its size, can range from $800 to upwards of $20,000 or more. They said, however, many of the encampments are on the smaller end in Redwood City. Additionally, Redwood City Police are currently patrolling the encampment sites. Council said the cost to conduct the sweeps will go down after the police enforcement team is replaced by civilian teams.
Meanwhile, Cohn said it's always been about community safety.
"Living across the street from supposedly 11 fires over the last two and a half years. It really becomes a public safety issue, not an inhumane issue," she said.
While the City Council said this is a more empathetic approach and another tool in their toolbox, others said the real issue is the lack of affordable housing for all.
Meanwhile, the city agreed to establish a standing committee that will be open to the public, in which members would monitor the progress of this new ordinance and check in on a quarterly basis.
Additionally, San Mateo County executives clarified on Monday night that since implementing their enforcement, they have not made any arrests or written any citations yet.
