The Status-Shaming and Criminalization of Homeless People

By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor

On May 28, Random Lengths News followed up on a tip that homeless people were regularly being refused access to the public restrooms at the Anderson Park Senior Citizen’s Center on 9th and Mesa streets.

On that day, we asked a man pushing a shopping cart near the center if he was allowed to use the bathroom there. It turned out he didn’t know the facility has restrooms.

The man then parked his cart filled with blankets and boxes, and went inside. He asked the first person he saw in an administrative office about the restrooms.

“I’m sorry, sir. The restrooms are out of order,” a silver-haired lady politely replied.

The restrooms were only a few paces beyond the administrative offices and there was no sign indicating they were out of order.

The park’s site manager, Art Jackson, told Random Lengths that he couldn’t speak to the press without permission from his supervisor, Serena Fiss-Ward.

Fiss-Ward ultimately directed Random Lengths’ questions further up the bureaucratic food chain to the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Park’s director of public information.

Rose Watson, the spokeswoman for the department, had not responded by presstime.

Among the questions sent to the department:

• How has Los Angeles Recreation and Parks staff been coping with complaints with homeless people on park grounds?

• Is there an official policy that prohibits homeless people from using the restrooms at Anderson Senior Center?

• How was the community notified about the formation of a park advisory board?

Later, staff posted a notice that the restrooms were only for patrons of the senior center, though the word “patron” was left open for interpretation.

This past April, the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council asked the department to form a park advisory board for Anderson Park. The application period ends June 30.

On June 3, Random Lengths News asked Jackson about the application. He responded that it already closed.

Recreation and Parks staff ultimately determines the board makeup after an applicant passes all fingerprinting and background checks. Applicants also must be stakeholders in the community of a park.

At a June 9 Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council meeting, a Recreation and Parks official, Craig Raines, noted that department staff members aren’t required to explain their decisions, but would do so if asked.

The stream of anecdotal reports on staff attitudes toward the homeless and their use of public facilities worries homeless advocates, like Karen Ceaser, a member of the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council.

“One gentleman who was homeless told me that…he used to go in there to charge his phone. He has since found housing, but a few weeks ago he sat down [in the center] and started charging his phone. The new director told him, ‘Get your stuff and get out here. You can’t be here.’ And, that’s how they’re treated,” she said.

Ceaser,   speaking only for herself in the context of this story, said that the gentleman didn’t look like a homeless person.

In many ways, the increasing amount of status-shaming of homeless people on social media aims to accomplish what local legislation can’t officially do: force homeless people out of town rather than solving the problem of homelessness.

Social media chatter on homeless people has intensified in recent months as more homeless people have become increasingly more visible.

This past May, Gerald Robinson and his comrades were livid after they were apparently forced to move from the park en masse one morning.

Many in this group were expelled from the encampments at Plaza Park, Antes Restaurant and the Beacon Street Post Office by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Bureau of Street Services this past April.

“I got two sides. They won’t like my bad side,” Robinson fumed. Stories abound of residents filming and taking pictures of homeless people and posting them on Facebook neighborhood watch pages.

“I was here when boats were still ferrying people to Terminal Island,” said Robinson, a local San Pedran.

Robinson was one of those featured in the Random Lengths story about the encampments in front of the closed Antes Restaurant this past April.

Encampment residents were frequently ticketed at the park before signs prohibiting camping at the Plaza Park were put up, due to local outcries on Facebook.

The UC Berkeley School of Law released a policy paper this past February that highlighted the growing number of anti-homeless laws in California. In Los Angeles alone, only 22 percent of homeless people had a shelter bed in 2013. That number grew to 30 percent in 2015, leaving nearly three-quarters of homeless people in Los Angeles County living outside full time.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Los Angeles municipal law that prohibited sitting, lying or sleeping in public places, saying it violated homeless people’s Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

“When laws prohibiting sleeping or camping in public become an enforcement priority, the resulting arrest campaigns may restrict the right of homeless people to move freely,” the Berkeley report noted

In November 2014, the Los Angeles City Council asked the city attorney’s office to draft an ordinance that would make it easier and faster for city workers to clean up and impound the belongings of homeless people.

The proposal would reduce the time required to post notice requiring removal of bulky items from sidewalks from 72 to 24 hours.

The belongings of homeless people that can fit into 60-gallon drums are taken to a facility in downtown Los Angeles and held for about 90 days or until retrieved by the owners. Depending on where the items were collected, those belongings are as good as gone. Sometimes they include documents needed to get into housing.

That’s what happened to Robinson when his encampment was cleared in April. A day before the cleanup, Robinson had to be hospitalized for shortness of breath and other issues. He was released three days later.

Fortunately, despite his belongings being taken 26 miles away, he has received his Section 8 housing voucher and is close to finding housing.

Meanwhile, there are local efforts underway by homeless advocates to provide transitional housing for those with Section 8 vouchers looking for permanent housing.