Public Commons for Everyone public meeting

Now that the city council passed a revised version of the Public Commons for Everyone initiative proposed by Mayor Tom Bates back in June and a new outside public consultant-Lauren Lempert-has been hired to develop a more complete PCEI by November 20th she is now actively soliciting input from community stakeholders now she has called a public meeting for this coming Saturday September 29th from 10am to 1pm.

The initiative according to the city manager's plan seeks to ensure everyone feels welcome and safe in the city's common areas. Initially unveiled in March many homeless advocates and others concerned about those on streets were alarmed by its language. At the city council meeting then I successfully got several people from the streets including six street youths to show up concerned about the plan to ban sidewalk sitting on Telegraph and Shattuck who held up signs that got on the local tv news. A small but determined group of advocates were able to argue successfully against the more onerous parts of the initiative.

The mayor dropped the ban to sitting on the sidewalks which means on 3 different times I have been successful in organizing against that(the last times were in 1998 and under Measure O from 1994 to 1996). We also got the city council the need for public bathrooms particularly at night because the initiative called for laws against public urination and defecation which the council passed in June before those bathrooms were opened or their hours expanded to 24-7. Since the initiative was proposed police targeting of those without homes sleeping outside or those sitting on the sidewalks has been considerably stepped up using present laws but more situations not legally sanctioned such as telling people they can't sit on the sidewalk or sparechange.

I am seeking to work with Copwatch, Osha Neumann and the Homeless Action Center to try increase documentation and legal resistance I have been successfully able to do in previous years. About two weeks ago there was a sweep of people sleeping between Shattuck and campus. In early summer there was a visible dearth of street people on Telegraph but now as people come back from Santa Rita or John George and the police harassment seems to let up to more normal levels I find there is quite few street people about.

A key part of the ordinance language being proposed I am concerned with involved taking away the 2 warnings people are allowed for lodging(647j) and basically the essential call under the Homeless Human and Civil Rights Resolution that sleeping outside would be the police's lowest priority. After sending many of those being cited by the police for sleeping outside mostly after the HHCRR was passed in April 2001 to the Suitcase Clinic and the East Bay Community Law Center where these citations and police incidents were amply documented the EBCLC lawyer Tirien Steinbach released documented proving what we in the BOSS Community Organizing Team were saying.

This report was presented to the Police Review Commission that recommended an area in a city park be open at night(all city parks now have curfew laws in place from 10am to 6pm so sleeping in the parks can get you a trespassing ticket) and for all sleep infractions people get a warning. The city council did not act on these recommendations. The Berkeley police complain that being required to give warnings ties their hands and inhibits them from citing folks. As long as there is way too inadequate availability of housing and shelter giving the police this removal of warnings results in a basic criminalization of the human need to sleep.

Sleep deprivation is a commonly used form of torture. Many homeless already stay up at night for fear of the police---and yes criminal elements that prey on them which the police too seldomly protect them from. The police say they need their hands untied to go after problematic street behavior but the reality is despite all their claims to the contrary is many of those whose main crime is being houseless get routinely swept up, forced to move on and in effect em0tionally brutalized by letting police to go after people sleeping without checks. Many of the officers avoid doing this, will only do so if ordered to but there is always a few "cowboys'' often with a demeaning sense of humor who seem to relish making people sleeping outside get up, pounding their shoes with batons.

While I have definitely been an active advocate for more substance abuse and mental health services I am concerned this will be "offerred" in a coercive manner that violates patient rights and force people into recovery programs who are not addicts. 12 step programs and mental health recovery programs work for those who accept they need that kind of assistance yes after "hitting bottom" but too often with combined with law enforcement and the courts represent another way to punish the homeless as "undeserving poor" and remove from the streets the visible manifestation of the sort of abject poverty.

I believe society needs uncomfortable reminders of on a daily basis. There are real instances of inappropriate street behavior that call for some kind of intervention. I think the idea of having a peer street outreach behavior speak to them before the police acts is good, support crisis intervention training for the police to better to deal with those in mental crisis and community policing. I think with the money generated by the parking fees is an opportunity to provide positive incentives to change street behavior, help people get off the streets.