by Kelsey Penrose
Last week, the Carson City Board of Supervisors discussed the future of Carson City’s ordinances pertaining to homelessness following a recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion allowing municipalities to enforce laws such as no camping on public property.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, District Attorney Jason Woodbury and his office began researching what this could mean for Carson City and brought forward the discussion during the August 15 meeting.
There are several ordinances already on the book within Carson City municipal codes outlawing lying/sleeping on sidewalks, streets and public places; obstructing sidewalks or streets; sleeping in cars; and camping in parks. However, following the 2018 case Martin v. Boise, enforcement of these codes was left up in the air.
In that case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dictated Boise could not enforce its public camping ordinance against homeless individuals who lacked “access to alternative shelter.”
The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the case, leaving many of the western states, including Nevada, in the lurch.
What made things more difficult, Woodbury said, was the definition of “available” alternative shelter. For example, in Grants Pass, Oregon the beds available at a charity-run shelter did not qualify as “available” because it required individuals seeking shelter to abstain from smoking and attend religious services.
Grants Pass was sued for enforcing the public camping laws, which the Ninth Circuit upheld.
However, the Supreme Court did hear an appeal from Grants Pass, in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case, which was heard earlier this year.
The court stated that the repercussions of the Martin case have “paralyzed even commonsense, and good-faith efforts at addressing homelessness.”
The court further determined that the question of which shelters are deemed to be available or adequate is an “unworkable inquiry.”
The court concluded that “a handful of federal judges” cannot match the collective wisdom of the American people in deciding how to best handle social issues like homelessness, stating “Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many. So may be the public policy responses required to address it.”
Responses from the Board of Supervisors echoed this sentiment.
“It takes community; not one of us on our own can solve homelessness,” Mayor Lori Bagwell said.
“This is one of those deals where it’s not simple; latitude has to be given in all directions,” Supervisor Maurice White agreed.
Supervisors discussed what could be done at a local, as well as regional, stating an increase in homelessness is coming from individuals coming from some cities in California that have instituted “aggressive sweeps,” and offered bus tickets, as well as other local counties which bring homeless or mentally ill individuals to Carson City to access medical care — but do not come back to retrieve them.
Deacon Craig Lagier, who is the president of Carson City’s Night Off The Streets program, said the vast majority of homeless individuals suffer from mental issues, stating 80% are mentally ill while 25% are severely mentally disabled.
According to Lagier, there are over 260 homeless individuals currently residing in Carson City. Some new arrivals he spoke to just this week were all fleeing something: one, a ticket from the California side of Lake Tahoe, another, from violence experienced at the Cares Campus in Reno, and another because they believed Carson City is a safer option.
Supervisor Stacey Giomi asked Lagier how to balance wanting to help Carson City’s homeless residents without inviting others to come access our services.
“The concern is: when you open a shelter, they will come,” said Supervisor Stacey Giomi. “The Ninth Circuit decision has swelled our numbers in the west, there’s no doubt about that. But, I guess I ask, how do we as a community balance that so we’re not inviting more people into the community that aren’t from here, because I think everyone on this board and in this community wants to help those people who have shown a commitment and are part of our community. But what we don’t want to do is take on the burden of supporting (other communities’) people.”
Lagier said that, at present, Carson City doesn’t have the kind of services or infrastructure that attract individuals who are outside the region “just moving around.”
“We don’t have the rail stop, we don’t have the truck stop, the bus stop that brings them here. They do have that in Washoe County which is how they travel. That’s not what’s bringing them here. Most of our problems is we’re seeing those coming through; there’s a trail between Salt Lake City and the Tenderloin.”
Lagier said that most of the individuals come winter time are locals; one such individual who Lagier said is currently in jail is a Carson High School graduate who was voted “most likely to succeed” before falling victim to methamphetamine.
In the last two years, Lagier said, they’ve been able to help 17 people out of homelessness and are now living in their own apartments thanks to all of the services offered within the community through the non-profits as well as city departments.
Giomi said he would like to see a way to legally keep those individuals who state they’re not locals, but just passing through, to keep passing through so services can continue to be provided to local individuals in need.
Carson City Library Director Joy Holt asked that while the board and DA’s office is looking at ordinances to consider specific language about unattended belongings being “stashed” throughout the city, especially at the library.
“One of the issues we face at the library are the copious amounts of unattended belongings being left and that can range from a single backpack to … shopping carts,” Holt said.
Holt said while they do enforce not leaving belongings unattended, it would be more helpful to have clear language in city code.
Holt said the reasons individuals are not allowed to bring their belongings into the library is because they can obstruct aisles and walkways, which interferes with the library’s ADA compliance, as well as issues with bed bugs.
“Bed bugs thrive in paper, and it’s a library,” Holt said. “We’ve had an outbreak in the past.”
Holt said this is important not only for the library, but other public facilities as well as parks.
Health and Human Services Director Nikki Aaker said what would help most of all is a collaborative effort between the city and other local municipalities.
“If the talks can happen between commissioners and supervisors, this is a regional problem as we know. We’ve been talking with some of the social service providers in the other counties but it also would really help if we could have those conversations happening at the higher level and ask: what can we do regionally?”
Giomi said while he would be in favor of it, supervisors’ hands are a bit tied because of open meeting laws, but suggested reaching out to the other local governments and hosting a regional tri- or quad-county commissioner’s meeting to discuss the issue.
Giomi we’re limited by open meeting laws but maybe we can hold a regional tri- or quad-county commission meeting.
Bagwell said that currently, the sheriff’s office can begin reenforcing codes relating to camping and disorderly conduct, while the DA’s office works to craft new potential ordinances given the recent Grants Pass ruling.
“Grants Pass (ruling) is brand new, and its a big change here in the Ninth Circuit, and I think we ought to be extremely cautious,” Woodbury said. “We’ll never be fully protected from challenges. It wouldn’t serve the city to just cut and paste from Grants Pass’ (municipal codes).”
The DA’s office will return before the board with suggested ordinances at a later date, which would then be discussed for adoption.
