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After hearing three and a half hours of impassioned — and at times enraged — public testimony from concerned residents and homeless advocates at last night’s meeting, the Eureka City Council unanimously voted to postpone its decision on an ordinance that would increase penalties for people living in unauthorized encampments. 

The draft ordinance — linked here — is a “streamlined” version of two existing policies that restrict unlawful camping, sitting, lying and loitering in public spaces. Staff believes the modified ordinance would serve as an “additional tool” to encourage unhoused community members to “engage with available services” by upgrading penalties from an infraction to a misdemeanor, which, upon conviction, could result in up to a year in jail or a fine up to $1,000.

The proposed ordinance would allow the city to redirect offenders to rehabilitative services instead of jail through its Law Enforcement Alternative Diversion (LEAD) program.

“I hope that [it’s] clear to our entire community that the City of Eureka is 100 percent committed to balancing accountability with compassionate support for individuals experiencing homelessness,” said City Manager Miles Slattery. “This recommendation comes from the endorsement of your professional staff with decades of experience in the field of progressive police practices, social service, programming and mental health. All of these professionals are intimately familiar with our unhoused community members and interact with them daily, seven days a week.”

Managing Mental Health Clinician Jacob Rosen, who leads Crisis Alternative Response Eureka (CARE), went over the finer points of the proposed ordinance and the LEAD program. He acknowledged homeless advocates’ concerns surrounding increased penalties for offenders but offered reassurance that it would “increase the efficacy of the accountability interactions with EPD.”

Rosen | Screenshot

“The idea behind having the misdemeanor is it provides more motivation for the individual to then participate with LEAD. This isn’t something that is necessarily meant to be a one-off, except in extraordinary circumstances,” Rosen said, referring to a “one-off” interaction with EPD as opposed to someone who has been contacted or cited on numerous occasions. “The first step in this process is the referral … the second part is intake. We then have the ‘plan development phase’ … and then talk about engagement — getting the client engaged in the community with the services that they desire, connecting them to those services, and then graduation.”

Rosen emphasized the importance of “reducing barriers” for people who choose to participate in LEAD to increase the program’s chances of success. The city is hoping to expand drop-in hours at the city’s new community resource center, located in the Municipal Auditorium at 1111 E Street, to accommodate LEAD participants. “Or we can go out in the field and meet them there,” he said.

Once intake is complete, LEAD staff will work with the individual to determine what resources they need and help them set long- and short-term goals to get to their eventual graduation from the program. 

“Completion of LEAD is based on participation towards the individualized goals, not regimented activities,” Rosen said. “This isn’t something where people are going to come and do community service, right? This is going to be something where they identify what they need and then work toward those specific goals. It’s going to look different for each individual.”

Rosen reiterated Slattery’s previous point, emphasizing that the purpose of the ordinance is to balance accountability with compassion and “increase the efficacy of accountability interventions.” He added that the LEAD program will use programs and systems that are already in place and will not require the city to bolster other services. The program could be ready for implementation as soon as May 1.

Special Program Manager Jeff Davis, who heads Uplift Eureka, emphasized that the city’s “No. 1 goal” is to get the city’s unhoused community into affordable housing. “This is the key,” he said. “This is how we move towards ending homelessness, is having adequate housing, especially low-income and very-low-income housing.”

Davis said staff has made “significant strides” in getting people housed through the city’s Homeless, Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) programs. The city has housed over 200 people through its Rapid Rehousing Program, which offers assistance to people experiencing “Category 1” homelessness. Another municipal program launched at the end of last year has helped prevent 16 households “at imminent risk of experiencing homelessness” from losing their homes, Davis said. 

Once it’s up and running in the next month, the Crowley Site, a long-awaited transitional housing project on Hilfiker Lane, will provide 33 tiny housing units with shared restrooms, kitchens and laundry facilities to unhoused people living in encampments in the greenbelt along the Hikshari’ Trail. The city has several other affordable housing projects in the works, including the Sunset Heights project near Winco.

Davis added that there are shelter beds available for people who need a safe place to sleep at night. The Eureka Rescue Mission currently has 120 beds, with a 40-bed overflow, on the men’s side of the shelter, and 63 beds, with an eight-bed overflow on the women’s side. 

“If, at any point in time, those are at capacity, the city has an overflow of 25 additional beds at St. Vincent de Paul’s, and that has not been activated in over two years,” Davis said, adding that the Betty Kwan Chinn Foundation provides another 96 beds. “In total … the City of Eureka, including overflow, [has] 352 beds.”

Turning to questions from the council, Councilmember Kati Moulton asked why it is necessary to increase the penalty from an infraction to a misdemeanor. “You can still get engaged with services with or without that infraction,” she said. “Why do you feel that we need to have a misdemeanor level added to or in place of that?”

Rosen noted that CARE staff and EPD’s Community Safety Engagement Team (CSET) regularly engage with unhoused people but acknowledged that “each of those programs hits barriers with certain clients for various reasons.” Sometimes people are struggling with substance abuse or mental illness that can make it difficult for people to want to change, he said.

“The hope is that this tool can be used selectively and sensitively, adding another tool to the toolbox,” Rosen continued. “We’re not planning on changing how we operate. In the extensive meetings we’ve had with CSET, CARE and Uplift, there really isn’t a goal to change because we know that what we’re doing right now works for a lot of folks.”

Dozens of people packed into council chambers spoke during the three-and-a-half-hour public comment portion of the discussion, which carried on until 1:30 a.m. Most of the commentary came from homeless advocates and allies who feared the proposal would “criminalize people simply for existing.”

“I’m not a criminal yet, but I will be for being homeless,” said one speaker who only identified herself as Jammie. “These organizations that you guys have are not gonna apply for me. I’m not what they want. I do have mental illnesses, I’m on the street, I have a child but I can’t get housed. Why is that? [Is it] because I make too much money? … I’ll tell you one thing: If you gave some people just a chance to fucking live and exist in a community space, I betcha you’d see some differences.”

Other people talked about their own experiences living on the streets and shared stories of police brutality, while others criticized the city for failing to provide adequate resources for people in need. A handful of speakers drew comparisons between the criminalization of unhoused people and the ongoing war in Gaza and dedicated a portion of their three-minute speaking time to the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been killed.

However, several people spoke in favor of the ordinance and praised staff’s approach to addressing the city’s homelessness crisis. Lea Nagy, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Humboldt, said she’s worked with families across the country and has been told that Humboldt County and Eureka have “some of the best programs for homeless people in the whole United States.”

“I went to a crisis intervention training in Denver, and I said to these different states, ‘Do you have CSET? Do you have a CARE team? Do you have this?’ [And they said,] ‘No, we don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I just want to applaud the people here — everybody here cares about the homeless,” Nagy said, gesturing to the room full of people. “I really support you guys in the City of Eureka. You are amazing.”

Aaron Ostrom, a local business owner and volunteer with PacOut Green Team, spoke in favor of the ordinance and praised the city for taking a “progressive” approach to confronting homelessness and dealing with encampments.

“You’ve come up with some fantastic solutions, and I think this is another great, nuanced solution to addressing the homeless encampment problem,” he said. “I feel like you guys are positioned to be leaders within the community — even the state — in how you’re dealing with the homeless crisis. … I think this is a very progressive way to reduce arrests and get them into beds and get them into services.”

As the meeting approached the seven-hour mark, the discussion returned to the visibly exhausted city council.

Moulton made a motion to continue the discussion at the council’s next meeting on April 1, noting, “I don’t think sleeping on [this decision] is going to do any harm.” Councilmember Scott Bauer seconded the action.

Councilmember Renee Contreras-DeLoach asked for the discussion to be pushed out even further, noting that the newly formed ad hoc committee for encampment alternatives hasn’t even had its first meeting. She made a motion to table the discussion “for a length of time.” Councilmember G. Mario Fernandez offered a second.

Contreras-DeLoach | Screenshot

“I’m not comfortable passing an ordinance like this until we start addressing some other things first,” Contreras-DeLoach said. “It’s not a ‘no’ for me, it’s a ‘not right now’ because I think there’s some structural things that need to be worked on. I feel that we should involve other members of the community in this conversation. … I also want to talk to our chief and city manager about the managed encampment possibility.”

Councilmember Leslie Castellano asked for the motion to include several points of direction for staff to consider before the item comes back to council. She asked for the formation of a working group comprised of people with lived experience on the streets, business owners, local leaders, people from the faith community and others to help staff create an ordinance that addresses some of the concerns brought up at the meeting. She also asked about the possibility of bringing back the homeless court, increasing detox facilities, sanctioned camping and starting LEAD as a pilot program, among other suggestions.

“It looks like we could potentially work with the [District Attorney] to look at opportunities to implement LEAD-type programs for people who are already … entering the system,” she said. “That way, we’re not adding people to the system; we’re helping to divert people away from those systems.”

After a bit of additional discussion and some confusion about the motion on the table, the council agreed by consensus to direct staff to look into Castellano’s suggestions and voted 5-0 to table the ordinance discussion to a date uncertain.