10 signatures reached
To: Public Health Officer Edward Moreno of Monterey County
Stop Salinas & Monterey County Homeless Sweeps
The Salinas/Monterey County Homeless Union, a branch of the California Homeless Union/Statewide Organizing Council, affiliate of the National Union of the Homeless, and representing and formed of our unhoused community members on the streets of California, joins with the broader Community in saying:
We the People urge Public Health Officer Edward Moreno to immediately suspend all sweeps of homeless persons by police, private contractors, and other city departments in Monterey County. We demand that you enforce both Executive Order N-33-20 and cease and desist from clearing homeless encampments as directed by the U.S. Center for Disease Control. In lieu of these costly sweeps, we ask that sufficient hand-washing stations and portable restrooms be installed at all encampments, 1 per every 10 unhoused residents, and that they be serviced daily.
We the People urge Public Health Officer Edward Moreno to immediately suspend all sweeps of homeless persons by police, private contractors, and other city departments in Monterey County. We demand that you enforce both Executive Order N-33-20 and cease and desist from clearing homeless encampments as directed by the U.S. Center for Disease Control. In lieu of these costly sweeps, we ask that sufficient hand-washing stations and portable restrooms be installed at all encampments, 1 per every 10 unhoused residents, and that they be serviced daily.
Why is this important?
Monterey County police departments continue to coordinate with other official entities to conduct sweeps of unsheltered persons from location to location in direct violation of Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order N-33-20, issued March 19, 2020 which requires that “all individuals living in the State of California to stay home or at their place of residence[.]” Currently, owing, among other factors, to the failure of the City of Salinas to address the already existing housing crisis, there are thousands of persons whose current residences are the streets, the homeless encampments, the parks, under freeway overpasses and by the railroad tracks.
These locations are, for legal purposes considered residences, as evidenced, amongst other things, by California Voting Rights laws which permit a homeless person to register to vote by merely describing streets, parks or other location where they live, or, in most cases, forced to live for lack of affordable housing. (See, Voter Registration Form at California Secretary of State website.) Thus, by breaking up existing encampments, i.e. homeless persons’ residences, under any pretext and sweeping the homeless from place to place, the City of Salinas is violating California State Executive Order No. N-33-20.
In addition to violating the “Shelter-in-Place” Executive Order, the City’s policy and practice of breaking up existing homeless encampments directly conflicts with instructions from the United States Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) which recites as follows: “Unless individual housing units are available, do not clear encampments during community spread of COVID-19. Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread.” See, CDC Official Website. Thus, by continuing to conduct sweeps of any scale, the City is directly endangering the lives of thousands of Salinas residents, housed and unhoused alike.
These locations are, for legal purposes considered residences, as evidenced, amongst other things, by California Voting Rights laws which permit a homeless person to register to vote by merely describing streets, parks or other location where they live, or, in most cases, forced to live for lack of affordable housing. (See, Voter Registration Form at California Secretary of State website.) Thus, by breaking up existing encampments, i.e. homeless persons’ residences, under any pretext and sweeping the homeless from place to place, the City of Salinas is violating California State Executive Order No. N-33-20.
In addition to violating the “Shelter-in-Place” Executive Order, the City’s policy and practice of breaking up existing homeless encampments directly conflicts with instructions from the United States Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) which recites as follows: “Unless individual housing units are available, do not clear encampments during community spread of COVID-19. Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread.” See, CDC Official Website. Thus, by continuing to conduct sweeps of any scale, the City is directly endangering the lives of thousands of Salinas residents, housed and unhoused alike.