California recently awarded $91 million in grants to local organizations that help prevent hate crimes or support survivors, part of an unprecedented effort to combat hate in a state that saw a 20% increase in such crimes in 2022.

Despite its progressive reputation, California last year reported steep increases in hate crimes against transgender people (up 55%), Muslims (up 39%) and Black people (up 27%), according to the Attorney General’s office.

That growth outpaced similar hate growth trends in 42 major cities, according to a soon to be released study by Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

The state’s latest Stop the Hate grants bring its non-law enforcement anti-hate spending to more than $200 million since 2021, more than any other state, advocates say.

The grants will go to more than 170 community groups at a time when the state is experiencing a steady clip in high-profile hate incidents — from the August murder of a Southern California store owner who flew a rainbow flag, and the recent evacuation of an Oakland elementary school after a racist bomb threat, to the fiery debates over rights of transgender students at various school boards.

California in the past year created a commission to study the state of hate and set up a hotline for people to report incidents to its Civil Rights Department. The state also put together a team of mediators to address conflicts in communities.

‘Swap meet of hate’

Both Sacramento and Los Angeles saw record levels of hate crimes in 2022, according to the study by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, which independently analyzes data from local law enforcement agencies.

Researchers say that while the state’s reported hate crime numbers appear to be dipping slightly in 2023, the upcoming presidential election is likely to turn up the temperature even more.

“We are very concerned about an increase next year,” said Brian Levin, a study author and member of the 9-month-old Commission on the State of Hate. He told fellow commissioners last month: “Mainstream politics has gotten not only more tribal, but also more bigoted.”

Levin said in an interview with CalMatters that hate crimes historically rise in response to political speech and current events. But in recent years such spikes have lasted longer, such as when anti-Black crimes remained elevated months after 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests.

Social media provides “a 24-7 swap meet of hate,” he said. “We’re having a significant increase in hate crimes, and hate crimes are getting more violent. But we’re also having more reporting, particularly in certain areas.”

Hate crimes are notoriously difficult to track. Survivors often don’t report them, and local law enforcement agencies vary in how well they monitor them and how much they report to state and federal authorities.

California’s grants aim to help reduce or respond to hate crimes, and to incidents that may not rise to the level of a crime but nevertheless take a toll on an individual or community.

Anti-transgender hate

Terra Russell-Slavin, chief impact officer at the Los Angeles LGBTQ Center, said that center is receiving more hate mail than in the past and recently experienced a credible bomb threat.

“There definitely is increased fear among the community,” she said, adding that the rise in reported hate crimes against transgender people, while troubling, is not surprising.

“This is part of a nationally coordinated attack against our community, and it’s very much targeted at transgender people and particularly trans youth issues,” she said, adding that anti-transgender rhetoric by elected officials “has been field-tested, and frankly it feels like attacking the transgender community is helping rally their base.”

Equality California, an LGBTQ civil rights organization, received a wave of phone calls at the start of pride festival season from people organizing such events in small towns wondering if it was safe, said program director Erin Arendse.

Equality California is using its $630,000 state grant to create a rapid response network that can send staff and resources to local communities when issues arise – such as when a school board is deciding on policies that would out transgender students or ban rainbow flags in classrooms.

“We want to make sure they understand these policies,” Arendse said, “both in terms of how it impacts an individual student and how it turns up the temperature of anti transgender and LGBTQ sentiment and indicates that it’s OK to discriminate against this group of people.”

Black Californians most often affected

In California and nationwide, Black people and communities are the most frequent target of reported hate crimes, data show.

Black people represented 6% of California’s population but about 30% of its reported hate crime victims in 2022, according to the Attorney General’s office. Yet organizations focused on the Black community appear to be receiving a fraction of the grants the state is disbursing.

One group, the Black Youth Leadership Project in Elk Grove, a Sacramento suburb, will use its Stop the Hate funds to provide mental health services — from art therapy to support groups — to Black children who experience racism in school, said Lorreen Pryor, its president.

Lorreen Pryor, president of the Black Youth Leadership Project, said her group was the only Black-led organization on a conference call about the state’s anti-hate hotline. She attended a festival in Elk Grove on Sept. 9, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal for CalMatters

The organization often mediates between schools and outraged parents, advocating for administrators to take parents’ concerns seriously. School bias can range from a teacher using the N-word in class to a Black student being disciplined for behavior that is tolerated from other students, she said.

She added she was surprised to discover that hers was the only Black-led group on a conference call of organizations consulting on the state’s hate hotline.

“We have to focus on the group that is most impacted, and that happens to be Black people,” Pryor said. “And until they do that, it’s all for naught.”

Early focus on anti-Asian hate

California originally created the Stop the Hate grants in response to a surge in anti-Asian hate incidents reported during the Covid-19 pandemic. The coalition Stop AAPI Hate has documented more than 11,000 such incidents nationwide since 2020.

Gov. Newsom signed the Asian Pacific Islander Equity budget in 2021 funding the grants at the urging of the state’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus. Early grants primarily went to organizations serving that community.

The state broadened its most recent round of grants to fund organizations that reflectCalifornia’s diversity, said Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, the lead organization distributing grants in the Los Angeles region. (The California Department of Social Services awards the grants.)

California’s declining Black population may have depressed the number of Black-led organizations applying for and receiving funding, Kulkarni said.

Some grants will address workplace hate. The NAACP’s California Hawaii State Conference is sponsoring legal consultations for people experiencing discrimination on the job or in housing. And San Francisco-based PRC, which helps Black transgender women reenter the workforce, is using its grant to make a film about its clients’ quest to overcome stigma and find jobs.

Another documentary, produced by teen filmmakers, will chronicle the impact of hate crimes on immigrant and refugee communities in San Diego. Somali Family Service, the non-profit spearheading the project, said it could empower other refugee communities and inspire policymakers to think about solutions.

Most Middle Eastern and North African teenagers the organization serves have experienced or witnessed hate incidents, said Rachel Evans, the group’s youth program manager. Many tell her they stay home from school on September 11, hoping to avoid the racist and anti-Muslim taunts that have come from students, teachers and administrators on that day.

“Many of these youth were not even born when 9/11 happened and they’re experiencing this unjust, ridiculous blame,” said Evans. “They don’t feel welcome in the country based on something that has nothing to do with them.”

Inspiring victims to report hate

California’s hotline offers people who have experienced hate incidents an opportunity to report them, whether or not the incidents were crimes. From its launch in May through the end of August, it has received 361 calls, said the Civil Rights Department, which runs it.

One goal is to reach Californians who are reluctant to contact police or who live in remote areas with few community groups to turn to, department officials said. Callers can learn about the reporting process, file a civil rights complaint, and access counseling, legal services and other support.

Hong Lee knows from experience how important such support can be. Three years ago, while standing in line at a restaurant, Lee turned down a man’s offer of a lunch date and he began yelling anti-Asian and sexist slurs at her. Lee captured the incident on video but a responding police officer called it “normal” and refused to take a report, she said.

A month later Lee realized she was experiencing post-traumatic stress.

“I wasn’t sleeping at night, just staring up at the ceiling,” she said. “I was in complete denial that I needed help at first.”

A friend connected her with LA vs Hate, a Los Angeles-based precursor of the state’s hotline.

It helped her get mental health counseling.

Now Lee works with other hate incident survivors and has started a nonprofit organization, Seniors Fight Back, that provides self-defense classes to elderly Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Her group is not getting a state grant.

Somali Family Service, one of the groups receiving state anti-hate money, hosted immigrant families, refugees and asylum seekers at a resource fair in San Diego on Sept. 9, 2023. Photo by Kristian Carreon for CalMatters

Often people at her classes share that they’ve been physically assaulted, she said, and Lee encourages them to report it, saying that in her case, several other victims recognized the man in her video and he ultimately faced hate crime charges from another incident.

Still, she said, many are reluctant to report. One woman in a self-defense class said she had been assaulted on public transit.

“She had bruises all over her body, but she didn’t want to tell anybody about it,” Lee said. “Two years later, she’s still inside her apartment, because she’s afraid to go outside.”

The Attorney General’s report said anti-Asian hate crimes fell in California by 43% in 2022 but they’re still far above pre-pandemic levels.

While scapegoating Asian Americans for the pandemic has receded nationally, anxiety about the economy and the U.S. relationship with China are driving other forms of anti-Asian racism, Kulkarni said. She cited Florida’s new law that bars Chinese citizens from owning property in much of that state.

Microaggressions still are a common experience among Los Angeles’ Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities, Kulkarni said, citing a state-funded study her group is conducting, but people are reporting declines in trauma symptoms when they speak out about their experiences. The AAPI Equity Alliance plans to use the study’s findings to launch support groups for Korean, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino and Japanese Americans in January.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Coalition for Community Safety and Justice is using a state grant to build alliances among various ethnic communities to tackle issues that affect all of them, such as safety on public transit and within public housing complexes. Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, a coalition member, said they’re asking public housing residents such questions as “Would you like to have escorts when you’re running errands? Would you like more opportunities to get to know your neighbors?”

“Safety is a concern for all communities, and it’s the one rallying point for residents and neighbors to come together around,” Choi said. “If we don’t tend to people’s basic needs being met, we are going to continue to see harm happen, whether it’s racially motivated or due to other factors.”

Community conflict resolutions

To help with that progress, the state’s new strike team of trained mediators will provide “immediate, on-the-ground intervention to avoid violence and to reduce tension in something that is live, something that is happening,” said Kevin Kish, director of the Civil Rights Department.

That could mean stepping in after a hate incident to help community members and law enforcement respond or it could mean helping a city council or school board prepare for a contentious meeting, he said.

“Nobody takes a class on how to deal with difficult public meetings,” he said. “People don’t know what to do and sometimes they make mistakes. Part of the value of this program is talking to folks in advance to make a plan for what might happen and how they’re going to respond.”

The mediators are trained in both civil rights and government. They began working together in October, officials said, declining to discuss details of specific cases.

Meanwhile the state’s Commission on the State of Hate is monitoring hate activity and hosting public forums. Consisting of activists, researchers, community leaders and law enforcement representatives appointed by the governor and Legislature, it’s required to issue annual reports and to recommend solutions.

Will all this effort actually reduce hate in California? Researchers say that just as bigoted comments by public officials can fuel crimes, when government leaders take strong stands against hate, such incidents decrease.

The Stop the Hate funding to community groups is part of a three-year plan, however it’s unclear whether lawmakers will choose to renew it. The law establishing the Commission on the State of Hate requires it to sunset in 2027.

“The question is, can we make sure the state continues to sustain this level of investment?” Choi asked.

Lee said a key will be more state outreach to grassroots organizations like her self-defense group. “We have the one-on-one connections to people.”

Added Levin, from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism: “This is not something that’s going to be solved by so-called experts and advocates. It’s going to be solved by soccer coaches, principals, community leaders, journalists. We need a whole-community response.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Sebren Green Sr. our beloved father, grandfather and great-grandfather passed away on August 31 at the age of 83 in his Fortuna home.

His pride and joy was his family. He loved each and every one of us. He was especially proud of his five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His friends and neighbors were regularly updated about their activities and accomplishments. He devoted himself to caring for his family and was always interested in what was happening in their lives. His great grandchildren loved to visit him and were often served special treats from the freezer.

Poppa Green’s second love was the US Navy. After over thirty years of faithful and honorable service in the US Navy, he retired, having achieved the rank of a Boatswain’s Mate, First Class. He served on the USS Salish, USS Bidelow, USS Forrestal, USS Tallahatchie and USS Lang and he was stationed in Northern Ireland, Virginia, Morocco, Naples and finally Centerville Beach in Ferndale in the 1970s. This last posting brought him and his boys: Sebren and Christopher to the town of Fortuna where he lived the rest of his life. He loved his time in the Navy. In every phone conversation or visit, Navy stories would be shared and the “invitation” to become a sailor was often shared with his grandchildren. The sea was never far from his heart. He was constantly looking for sailing vessels and discussed sailing around the world with his family.

An explorer at heart, he learned to drive trucks after retirement and spent several years traveling around the country as a big rig driver until his health no longer permitted it. One of his dreams in his later years was to travel the country, to visit family members in Chicago, Texas and California in his travel camper. While he did not physically get there, he kept in constant contact with family near and far via phone and video chat.

He was also a lifelong learner. He received his Associate Arts degree from College of the Redwoods after retiring. He loved history and the History Channel was a constant sound playing on his television. He also loved architecture. He had many books on architecture and had drafted ideas for his dream home. He had a passion for design in general and he spoke often of different designs he had for carts and bikes he wanted to create for the family.

Sebren had the gift for conversation. He could tell stories with anyone and everyone he met. With a big smile and a twinkle in his eye, he would expound upon any topic presented. Over the past 40 years, Sebren could be found all over Fortuna visiting and chatting with his friends and neighbors. He was a regular presence on the roads of Fortuna, riding his bicycle and often towing a grandchild behind him. He also had his beloved dog, Pipsqueak, hidden in his jacket or touring the town from a high seat in his truck.

His devotion to the Catholic Church was an important part of his life. He served as a Deacon at St. Joseph’s in Fortuna. In addition, he was a member of the Knights of Columbus. He attended mass weekly as long as his health permitted and he has many friends from his congregation that loved and admired him. He lived his faith by serving others. He had a warm and generous heart and he was often helping others despite his own needs.

Sebren is survived by family near and far. And for Sebren, family meant more than genealogical connections. His arms were wide open and he embraced many as family. Words cannot express how much he will be missed. We thank family and friends and the community of Fortuna for your love and support. Please join us for a celebration of his life. All who knew him are welcome to attend any or all of the scheduled events.

Sebren’s ashes will be scattered in Humboldt Bay at a time to be determined.

The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Sebren Green’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

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Fifth District Supervisor and Board Chair Steve Madrone began today’s Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting by reading a brief statement into the record.

“The Board of Supervisors values the Constitution and a person’s First Amendment right to free speech,” Madrone stated. “In order to facilitate an orderly meeting, the board chair will ensure that the citizen’s right to speak does not infringe on the rights and the protections of others. Any person who addresses this board shall refrain from threats of violence or statements that elicit a violent response.”

“We say this just to try and keep an orderly meeting and a respectful meeting,” he added.

Although he did not explicitly state the reason behind the declaration, the statement was in reference to comments made during the board’s last meeting on Aug. 22.

During that meeting, frequent public commenter Charles Wilson alleged that by flying the Pride flag outside the courthouse in June, the county was expressing support for “child mutilation and elimination of women’s right to privacy and security.” At the tail end of his rambling comments, Wilson pivoted and said, “When I volunteered for the Army, I was told by the government that I had to shoot people that the government didn’t like.”

Madrone immediately cut Wilson off, noting that his commenters were “crossing over into hate speech.” 

In a follow-up email, County Administrative Officer (CAO) Elishia Hayes told the Outpost that Wilson was cut off because his comments were perceived as a threat of violence. “[T]he commenter talked favorably about being able to shoot people who were disliked by the majority, and taken in context with the other comments he made, I perceived that to be a statement that could elicit a violent response towards certain populations within our own community … ,” Hayes wrote.

During today’s meeting, Wilson argued that his comments were misinterpreted and demanded that the board allow him to finish what he was going to say. Madrone granted his request even though he was speaking during public comment on the board’s consent calendar, not non-agenda public comment.

“I would have continued … I didn’t like the idea, just like now with a government promoting child mutilation, eliminating woman’s right of privacy and security, and forcing dangerous government medication in order to make money for pharmaceuticals,” Wilson said, in part. “[CAO Hayes] … cited my name specifically and said I talked favorably about being able to shoot people who are not disliked [sic] by the majority. I did not say I wanted to shoot people or any group.”

Wilson went on to demand a written apology from the Board of Supervisors and Hayes, “as well as actions taken publicly to correct the county’s … malinformation [sic] which defamed the character of me and my wife, which has put us in peril.”

Madrone allowed Wilson to use slightly more time than the allotted three minutes for public comment since he was cut off at the previous meeting. He also offered an apology.

Madrone

“Charles, I apologize to you for cutting you off early last time,” Madrone said. “I jumped to it before you made your final comment. … But in the future, we would have a warning first if the person is going into that area, and then they would be allowed to continue their comments as long as they don’t go into that area of eliciting a violent response, or threats of violence towards individuals or groups.”

A few others criticized Madrone’s response during non-agenda public comment, including Wilson’s wife. The board did not take any further action on the matter.

Grand Jury Responses

The board also reviewed three recent reports from the 2022-2023 Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury regarding emergency preparedness, inspections of county facilities and the state of the county’s Child Abuse Services Team, or CAST. 

Public Information Specialist Cati Gallardo went over the recommendations listed in each report and explained staff’s recommendation to adopt some, but not all, of the Grand Jury’s suggestions. 

For example, the Grand Jury’s report – “Humboldt County Emergency Preparedness: Ready or Not?” – asks the Board of Supervisors to “to write and print for release an easily-understood emergency preparedness handbook, including emergency evacuation routes and destination maps to all county residents and visitors by no later than March 31, 2024.” Gallardo said the board cannot implement the recommendation “because it is not reasonable for your board to implement.”

Another recommendation asked the Board of Supervisors to direct the Humboldt County Disaster Council, in coordination with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services (OES), to submit an updated Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) by the end of next year. Gallardo stated that the recommendation “is already in the process of being implemented.”

“It is anticipated that the revised draft EOP will be ready to be submitted for review by CalOES in late 2024,” Gallardo said. “However, the adoption of the plan will likely occur in 2025 after the review process can be completed.”

Ryan Derby, manager of Humboldt OES, said his office could share a template of the document with the Board of Supervisors by the end of the month.

“The [EOS] is really kind of a guiding document that establishes the framework of our emergency response,” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily serve as a playbook, right? I think what you’re looking for is something much simpler that we could probably have to you before the end of the month.”

After a bit of discussion, the board thanked the Grand Jury for its service and unanimously approved staff’s recommendations. You can find a detailed list of the Grand Jury’s recommendations and staff’s responses at this link.

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Other notable bits from today’s meeting:

• The board was set to hear an appeal of a recently approved conditional use permit for We Are Up, a 50-unit housing development for seniors and people with Autism and other intellectual disabilities, but the meeting was postponed. Planning and Building Director John Ford said “there is some hope that things can be worked out and so we are hoping to let that play out.” He said the public hearing would be continued at a date uncertain if the applicant and appellant cannot come to an agreement on the matter.
• The board approved the formation of an ad hoc working group to review the County of Humboldt Facilities Master Plan, which was adopted in 2020. The board agreed to appoint Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson and Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo to the ad hoc committee.
• The board also approved the appointment of Tesia Beauchene to the Shelter Cove Resort Improvement District’s board of directors. The appointment will extend through December 6, 2024.

PREVIOUSLY:

• (UPDATING) Eureka High on Hard Lockdown as Police Investigate Off-Campus Incident

Press release from the Eureka Police Department:

On September 12, 2023, at about 10:15 a.m., a City of Eureka employee witnessed a male enter the greenbelt near 15th and M Streets with a rifle on his back. Due to the proximity to the campus, Eureka High School was put on a lockdown out of an abundance of precaution while officers investigated.

With the assistance of the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office and a Fortuna Police Department drone, officers located and detained the male in the greenbelt around 12:30 p.m. A BB gun that resembled a rifle was located and seized.

The male was ultimately questioned and released from the scene, as no threats had been made. The Eureka Police Department would like to thank the observant City employee, assisting agencies and Eureka City Schools for their swift action.

Lockdowns are oftentimes scary situations for everyone involved. In the event of future lockdowns:

• Avoid calling the school or police
• Do not rush to the scene
• Check official social media pages for updates
• Avoid spreading information that has not been confirmed by an official source
• Educate yourself on school procedures
• Keep your contact information current with your school

Just after 9 a.m. this morning, the historic Hawaiian vessel Hōkūleʻa pulled within view of the small crowd of onlookers at Eureka’s F Street dock. Being in inshore waters, she was under tow from her motorized consort, the Kōlea. There was a moment of confusion as the two boats passed by the dock altogether and floated into the channel separating Woodley Island from the mainland. Were they heading up to the Bonnie Gool dock instead?

But a moment later the Kōlea lazed into sharp U-turn mid-channel and the Hōkūleʻa, dozens of feet behind, followed suit, with much of the crew of the double canoe rushing astern to work her giant steering oar, flipping her head around to the west. They pulled up at F Street, and advance scout and ground crew member Mike Cunningham, a Honolulu resident, rushed down to assist in making her fast to the dock.

The Hōkūleʻa is a double-canoe sailing ship modeled after Polynesian seafaring boats of antiquity, and is a source of pride for native Hawai’i. It was conceived of and built in the mid-1970s, with the goal of recreating the great Polynesian voyages during the settlement and of that immense region of the Pacific Ocean, leaving behind a culture that stretched from the Hawaiian Island of Ni’ihau in the north, to New Zealand in the southwest, to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the southeast.

The people behind the Hōkūleʻa project wanted to recreate and revive the old ways of long-distance navigating – without compasses or GPS devices or anything of that sort, using only knowledge of the stars, the winds and the currents. One of them, a young man named Nainoa Thompson, studied navigation with the only person they could find who still knew the old ways of wayfinding, a man from a small Micronesian island named Pius Piailug. After years of study, in 1980 they and a crew successfully sailed the Hōkūleʻa from Maui to Tahiti and back without modern tools – a distance of about 5,500 miles, round-trip.

The Hōkūleʻa has undertaken many missions since then, around the Polynesian Triangle and around the world, and when the boat pulled into Eureka for a stop on its current mission — “Moananuiākea: A Voyage for Earth,” a trip around the Pacific Ocean that began in Juneau, Alaska at the beginning of this summer – Thompson himself came to the side of the boat to tell visitors about the purpose of their current work.

“The evolution of this voyage is because we see the ocean changing,” Thompson said. “It’s our fundamental belief that the greatest environmental challenge of the 21st century is to protect the ocean. Because it protects life as we know it.”

Thompson said the crew of the Hōkūleʻa is serving as the “conduit” for a team they have built to advocate for ocean protection, against risks like acidification and the subsequent loss of plankton – the biggest producer of oxygen on the planet.

The size and scope of the mission has taken the Hōkūleʻa out of her normal waters, and Thompson spent some time marveling at the size of the Pacific Northwest’s swell and the fog. The boat wasn’t built for this kind of weather, but so far she’s been holding up.

But it does look like changing weather is going to keep the Hōkūleʻa in port for a couple of days, so you’ll be able to take a walk down to the F Street dock, and, if you’re lucky, catch a few words with the friendly crew. This morning, Thompson was last seen embracing Wiyot Tribal Chair Ted Hernandez, who welcomed them to town. It seemed as though some sightseeing had been ordered up for the crew.

According to Mike Cunningham, the expedition’s advance man, it looks as though the round-the-Pacific trip might be postponed a little bit. After the catastrophic fires on Maui, the crew feels a need to get this symbol of native Hawaiian ingenuity and accomplishment and back home.

“We know that the presence of Hōkūleʻa back in Hawai’i is going to give the people strength,” Cunningham said.

Read more about the Hōkūleʻa at the project’s website.

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UPDATE, 9/13: Just in! The Hawaiian vessel Hōkūleʻa, currently docked in Humboldt Bay, has announced they will offer public tours today (Wednesday) from 2 to 5 p.m. at F Street Dock.

UPDATE, 12:24 p.m.: Eureka Police Chief Todd Jarvis tells the Outpost’s Andrew Goff, on scene, that they have a suspect in custody.

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UPDATE, 11:47 a.m.: Updates from EPD:

UPDATE: Police are now searching the greenbelt area to the north of the Eureka High Campus with a drone. They are looking for a white male in his 40’s, bleach blonde hair shaved short, last seen wearing a blue sweatshirt. The male was seen walking in the greenbelt with what appeared to be a rifle over his shoulder and had a small black Chihuahua. Call 911 if you see anyone matching this description.

UPDATE: Based on the recommendation of EPD, EHS has moved from a hard lockdown to a soft lockdown. Teachers will resume instruction with students 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐮𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 - 𝐄𝐏𝐃 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲, 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧.

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UPDATE, 11 a.m.: Assistant Police Chief Brian Stephens tells the Outpost’s Andrew Goff, on scene, that there is no threat to students, and that the school was closed out of an abundance of caution. The police’s investigation is focused on the greenbelt, and as kids often head that way during the lunch period they wanted to get ahead of that.

Parents are asked not to come to the school, Stephens said

A Eureka High School administrator sent the following message to staff a few minutes ago:

Staff,

Please remain in a hard lockdown.

EPD is concerned about a potential threat in the surrounding area. We are evacuating the woodshop to the Ag building. Reminder, please keep all students away from windows and doors, with blinds shut and doors locked. If someone needs entry into your room they will key in.

UPDATE, 10:48 a.m.: EPD spokesperson Brittany Powell tells the Outpost that a man with a firearm was seen in the greenbelt north of the school. Powell said that Police Chief Todd Jarvis wishes to emphasize that the lockdown is purely cautionary. No one at the school has been hurt.

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ORIGINAL POST: Eureka High School went on hard lockdown a few minutes ago, which students being confined in their rooms and told to stay quiet, according to several messages received by the Outpost.

The Eureka Police Department says, on its Facebook page, that their officers are investigating an incident off-campus but “in close proximity,” and called for the lockdown out of an “abundance of caution.” They’re asking people to stay out of the area.

Scanner traffic indicates that police are searching a wide area of town around the school.

We’ll update when we know more.

Cities in the West can’t legally clear encampments unless they can provide adequate alternative shelter to the camp residents. But what, precisely, constitutes “adequate shelter?”

Is it one cot among dozens in a congregate shelter? A top bunk for an elderly person? An individual tiny home? A strip of asphalt, without electricity or water, where rows of people can set up their tents?

The definition is at the heart of debates raging across California in the five years since a federal appeals court ruled that it’s cruel and unusual punishment to evict homeless people from public spaces when they have no other options. The 2018 decision on that Boise, Idaho case by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, binding on states in the West, did not require cities to set up enough shelter beds for their entire homeless population, but said it would be unconstitutional to criminally penalize people camping in public when they lack “access to adequate temporary shelter.”

Last week a three-judge panel of that same court took another crack at the issue — this time declining to lift a temporary order that has, for nine months, halted San Francisco officials from sweeping the city’s homeless camps.

The most recent order gave San Francisco officials confirmation that the city can sweep sites and cite residents who are “voluntarily” homeless: those refusing legitimate, adequate shelter offers. Officials said they haven’t yet decided whether to do that.

An emergency non-congregate housing site in Chico on Sept. 6, 2023. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

California cities have been itching to get around the technical bounds of the Idaho ruling as constituents with homes complain about encampments in public spaces, citing public health and other concerns. Many local governments say they can ban encampments and that they have the alternative shelter options to enforce it.

Calling it a necessary form of tough love, they’re cracking down on public camps, pairing an offer of shelter — or a stern prodding toward it — with the threat of arrest or fine. San Diego in late July began enforcing a ban on camps in most public places during the day; other cities that have recently passed camping restrictions include Sacramento, San Rafael and Culver City.

Some say the carrot-and-stick approach is too weak a response to flagrant public health and safety concerns on the streets. Others say it’s an infringement on the rights of unhoused people who, if they refuse shelter because of personal circumstances, will get shuffled around town, lose belongings and contact with social workers, or be pushed to more remote or dangerous places to sleep.

In San Francisco, both advocates for the homeless and the city claimed the latest court decision supported their side.

“We are pleased that the 9th Circuit agreed with the City that the preliminary injunction does not apply to those who refuse shelter or those who have a shelter bed and choose to maintain a tent on the street,” City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement.

An attorney for the plaintiffs, a group of unsheltered San Franciscans and the nonprofit Coalition on Homelessness, said that was always the case — but with shelters often near capacity, the city hasn’t shown it is truly providing adequate offers to those on the streets. More than 4,000 people live unsheltered on the streets in San Francisco, while the city has just over 3,000 beds, and notes that not all unoccupied beds are immediately available for someone to be placed.

“The question is, are those people actually voluntarily homeless, did they actually give them a specific offer?” said Zal Shroff, interim legal director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. “The city is representing that 4,000 people on the streets are there by choice.”

New bans with new tents

In San Diego, police have for more than a month been enforcing a controversial new ban on camps on most public property during the day, or when shelter is available. The July ban prohibits camping near schools or shelters and in parks regardless of whether there’s shelter available. Enforcement coincided with a new “Safe Sleeping site” near a city park as a nod to adequate shelter options.

Though police have also recently ramped up enforcement of an older law banning camps from blocking sidewalks, they say they haven’t yet made an arrest under the new one, instead issuing 85 warnings and four citations in August. Police say they’re employing a progressive strategy by which city staff and then police offer shelter first and issue a warning, then step up to a misdemeanor charge or even an arrest if an unhoused person continues to camp in a prohibited spot.

San Diego Police Capt. Shawn Takeuchi of the Neighborhood Policing Division acknowledges it’s an imperfect approach to the needs of the 6,500 city residents who are homeless any given night this year.

“We cannot enforce our way through homelessness; it’s not the proper way to address homelessness.”
— Shawn Takeuchi, San Diego Police Captain

Of those, about 2,600 were in shelter beds. Nearly 3,300 were unsheltered — more than a 30% increase from last year. There are about 1,800 city-funded shelter beds in San Diego and about 600 others that are not funded by the city.

“We cannot enforce our way through homelessness; it’s not the proper way to address homelessness,” Takeuchi said.

But for those who refuse a shelter placement or willingly flaunt other laws such as those against public drug use, Takeuchi said, “enough’s enough. Government intervention needs to happen.”

The new “safe sleeping site” — a fenced asphalt lot with 136 tents that fit up to two people each — is located in a city maintenance yard tucked into the southern edge of the storied Balboa Park. The park and areas near schools have been the city’s first enforcement targets.

The city-funded site offers two meals a day, showers and services to help residents with their housing search. Couples can stay together. Folks can stay indefinitely.

It’s a new option in a city that has historically offered only large congregate shelters, which many refuse or find unsuitable. Mayor Todd Gloria said it comes with the “expectation” that more people will choose it over living on the streets when beds are available.

“We have put out a tremendous amount of carrots and we do need a few sticks,” he said. “It is the expectations of taxpayers funding these efforts that folks avail themselves of it.”

As of last week, the site had seven tents open, a spokesperson for Gloria said. The city’s other shelters are all nearly full any given night, said Sofia Cardenas, data and compliance manager at the Alpha Project, a San Diego nonprofit that runs five other shelters.

Neighboring cities have reported increases in encampments in their own borders in the wake of San Diego’s new law, and Cardenas said the nonprofit’s outreach workers are having a harder time finding clients who have scattered around the city.

Takeuchi acknowledged when officers approach a person with a warning or to cite them for violating the camping ban, they don’t necessarily know if there’s a placement for that person’s specific circumstances.

“It’s not as simple as, okay, there’s a bed available for every person we contact because there are certain beds that are not available to certain populations of folks,” he said.

When considering the new ordinance, the city’s attorneys in a legal memo noted that certain shelter options would be inadequate and put the city in danger of violating the Idaho ruling — such as an offer of a top bunk for an elderly or disabled person.

In the first month of enforcement, Takeuchi said out of 85 warnings only three people told police they would agree to a shelter placement, though people who are interested can call the city directly and do not have to accept the offer directly from police.

“It’s not as simple as, okay, there’s a bed available for every person we contact because there are certain beds that are not available to certain populations of folks.”
— Shawn Takeuchi, San Diego Police Captain

Cardenas said the city should have increased the number and variety of shelter beds before starting the enforcement, and said existing shelter spaces, including the tent site, may still be inadequate for the elderly or those with disabilities or mental illness.

“Mostly we see people shuffling around,” trying to avoid police, Cardenas said. “When we’re asking them to accept sanctioned campgrounds … is that the best we can do? Accept this, or go to jail?”

Cities contend they’ve been increasing the options. In San Diego, Gloria said officials have another sanctioned campsite planned to open this year that will be able to accommodate up to 400, and have loosened rules on the city’s congregate shelters so that residents can bring in a pet and are not required to be sober.

Mirroring other California politicians on the matter, Gloria criticized activists who call the shelter offerings inadequate as an “infinitesimally small number of voices who seemingly enjoy seeing encampments on the streets.”

“It’s never enough for them,” he said.

‘Better for who?’

Even if shelter spaces are open, unhoused people sometimes opt out.

Under the din of the Highway 99 overpass along the edge of Sacramento’s urban core, a man emerged from his tent on a recent weekend morning and sat at a makeshift breakfast table, shaking a box of cereal.

The man, who would only identify himself as 53-year-old Eric D., said he’d lived at this encampment of about five tents for about a month. His last campsite was a few blocks away near a freeway exit, and highway patrol officers told him he had to leave. The officers had given him a pamphlet with information about social services and shelter; he said “most of the information, a lot of the homeless people already know.”

“Better for who?” he said, when asked whether he would consider a shelter placement better than the encampment. “It depends on the individual.”

People and dogs walking between pallet shelters at an emergency non-congregate housing site in Chico on Sept. 6, 2023. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

Before the freeway exit site, Eric said he’d stayed at a shelter near downtown Sacramento for about two months, but said he got kicked out after missing the curfew three times. The third time, he said he had been staying with relatives while attending a family funeral. Now, he walks or takes the bus two miles from the tent to the community college where he takes classes twice a week, and a social worker visits him occasionally, helping him search for an apartment.

Eric said not all shelter experiences are comfortable and some people chafe at the rules. If he tries one again, he would want it to be near the community college.

“A lot of people are living harder than they need to,” he said of life on the streets. “Me, I can’t stand it.”

His neighbor, Joel Martinez, bagged up trash on the sidewalk before sitting down to light a cigarette.

Martinez, 63, considers himself a caretaker for a friend he’s met on the streets. She lives around the corner in a van, and that morning she was leaning on its hood partially clothed, chattering to herself. Martinez worries about leaving her alone.

“She talks to people we don’t see or hear,” he said. “People were taking advantage of her. I don’t know if she’d fit in at a shelter.”

Still, Martinez said, he’s trying to talk her into moving indoors or to a sanctioned campground with him.

He said he understands why cities are moving to ban encampments, and said not all residents keep their camps clean, though some, he said, “police ourselves.”

“I know people don’t like to be reminded of the homelessness,” he said. “But it’s here, and it seems like the COVID thing really brought it all out.”

Asphalt next to an airport doesn’t count

Federal courts have rarely defined the adequacy of specific types of shelter — though in one extreme case a judge said some things simply don’t count.

In Chico, a group of homeless residents sued the city in 2021 over its enforcement of a ban on camping on any public property. At the time, the city had 120 congregate shelter beds (capacity was diminished during the pandemic) and more than 570 unsheltered residents.

In response to the suit, officials opened a temporary sanctioned campground that summer where residents were allowed to park trailers or pitch tents. The city said it could accommodate its entire homeless population.

Airplanes and the control tower of the Chico Regional Airport in Chico on Sept. 6, 2023. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

Federal District Court Judge Morrison C. England — upon finding that the campground was a strip of asphalt alongside the local airport on the outskirts of town, with one awning erected for shade — was unconvinced.

“This raises the question, ‘What is shelter?’” he wrote, before quickly dismissing Chico’s “asphalt tarmac with no roof and no walls, no water and no electricity.”

Chico officials closed the airport site after less than three months, and last year settled the suit by agreeing to build a “pallet shelter” — 177 tiny homes — where those who are camping in a prohibited spot can be directed by outreach workers or police.

Under the settlement, when the city plans to sweep a camp, it must count the number of people living there and confirm there’s enough open shelter beds for them, then notify the plaintiffs’ attorneys and conduct outreach to offer the residents shelter in a process that could take 17 days.

“This raises the question, ‘What is shelter?’”
— Judge Morrison C. England, Federal District Court

More than 300 people have stayed at the new site since April, either because the city was about to sweep their campsites or because they called the city shelter intake line themselves, said Amber Abney-Bass, executive director of the nonprofit Jesus Center which is contracted by the city to run the site. More than 140 of them left either for violating program rules or not returning to their bed for 72 hours, prompting the shelter to give the slot to somebody else, she said. Fourteen have moved on to more stable housing.

Abney-Bass said she’s glad the case caused the city to create more beds, but she’s wary that as congregate shelters fall out of favor, some will remain on the streets believing “nothing else is good enough” compared to a tiny home placement.

Her nonprofit has assessed more than 100 other people living on the streets since the settlement who have refused a shelter placement if they couldn’t get into the tiny homes site.

Waiting for more judicial guidance

In another case, in Sacramento, a federal judge has temporarily halted encampment sweeps during heat waves twice since last year, after advocates pointed out in court that the city had been directing unhoused people to a sanctioned campground on unshaded asphalt. The site, city attorney Susana Alcala Wood said, does have meals, showers, restrooms and social services.

The city has asked the 9th Circuit to weigh in.

“In order to advise my client as to what constitutes sufficient shelter, I need the court to tell me,” Alcala Wood said.

For the most part, Sacramento has not issued criminal citations against unhoused people violating new camping restrictions passed last year, including bans on camping near schools or for blocking sidewalks. Instead, assistant City Manager Mario Lara said city workers focus on “voluntary compliance,” which does include ordering people to move their tents.

That’s drawn the ire of residents and other local politicians who want camps cleared faster and more frequently. Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho has threatened city officials with legal action if they don’t more aggressively enforce the camping bans.

Whether California’s shelter options are “adequate” alternatives to encampments remains an open question. Will Knight, decriminalization director at the National Homelessness Law Center, who opposes the bans, said that’s the next legal frontier for cities hoping to enforce camping restrictions.

Knight defines adequate shelter as accommodating of the personal reasons someone might refuse a traditional shelter bed — including proximity to their children’s school, transportation options or wanting to stay with a pet or partner.

“It has to be done from an extremely humane and individualized level,” he said, of enforcing camping bans.

Meanwhile, the Idaho ruling undergirding the debate may go before the Supreme Court. The Oregon city of Grants Pass, after losing its bid to enforce its camping ban in a similar case before the 9th Circuit this year, has appealed to the high court.

Alcala Wood, of Sacramento, said she’s among a number of city attorneys who plan to sign on to a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.

“Is a shelter not adequate if it doesn’t provide a place for your pets? Is a shelter not adequate if it doesn’t provide a place for you to store all your excess personal belongings?” she said, ticking off cities’ questions about their obligations. “Should we allow a person to be able to cook in a shelter? What about open flames? These are all questions we do not have the answers to.”

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