A Letter to Pasadena City Council

On South Lake Ave (Photo – Marc Talle for ColoradoBlvd.net)

We need housing for our unsheltered neighbors, not criminal enforcement of bans against sleeping outside.

By Sonja Berndt,  Bert Newton, and Denise Robb

We write to urge the City to provide more housing for our unsheltered residents and not to ramp up criminal enforcement of sleeping bans.

Pasadena City staff recently posted a report entitled “City’s Efforts to Address Issues Associated with Homelessness – Maintain, Enhance, and/or Implement New Programs” (“Staff Report”). That Report proposed creating a “homeless court” to be used even for persons simply sleeping in a public park after 10:00 p.m.

Grants Pass Background

June: the US Supreme Court decided a case called Grants Pass that allows cities to cite, arrest, fine and/or jail unhoused people for sleeping on public property in violation of a local ordinance. Crucially, Grants Pass only opens the door for this enforcement; it does not require it.  It is up to Pasadena leadership and our community to choose between evidence-based, housing-first solutions and criminalization.

September: the Pasadena City Council held a study session on issues related to Grants Pass.  Community members who were against criminalizing homelessness packed the Council chambers.  Their consensus was clear:  the City should not penalize our over-300 unsheltered residents simply for sleeping on public property when there is nowhere else in our City for them to sleep.

November: the City posted, then deleted, the Staff Report for the November 20, 2024 Public Safety Committee meeting, which was ultimately canceled. Staff’s recommendations included no increase in homeless services by our City’s street outreach or mental health crisis teams (except possibly a licensed medical professional in the future); and no increase in motel vouchers, which provide brief shelter for some of our unsheltered neighbors. The Staff Report proposed a homeless court, a pilot program for a mere 16 defendants who engage in “criminal activity” such as remaining in park/city property after 10:00 pm or urinating in public.

Pasadena Cannot in Good Faith Criminalize Biological Functions Such as Sleeping Outside when Its Leaders Have Failed to Provide Enough Housing for Them

Pasadena has a history of failing to provide more than trivial local funding for our unhoused residents. In the fiscal year 2025 budget adopted last June, less than 1.0% of all appropriations to Departments from the General Fund goes to the Housing Department for use in ALL of its programs. Significantly, in FY 2021 and 2022, the City used over $20 million (total) of General Fund reserves to pay toward Rose Bowl debt. But for FY 2021-2025, the Council appropriated less than half that amount from the General Fund for the Housing Department.

Homeless Court: Is the proposed “homeless court” going to be used to justify a ramped-up effort to cite, fine, arrest or jail our residents for sleeping in a city park after 10:00 pm, or urinating in public when there are no toilets available?  Why doesn’t the City fund outreach workers to connect our unsheltered neighbors with housing?  If the City cannot yet house our over 300 unsheltered residents, why can’t it officially announce areas where they can sleep at night without being cited?

Conclusion

Grants Pass should not be used by our City to ramp up enforcement of ordinances against sleeping on public property at night or engaging in other biological functions. Our unsheltered neighbors have nowhere else to go in our City due in large part to the Council’s failure to provide enough local funding to house them or to provide toilets. Besides substantially increasing funding for housing and services, the City should officially announce where our unsheltered residents can sleep and urinate/defecate without being cited.  Finally, we urge the City to form a Committee of the Council to develop a homelessness plan that includes a goal of “functional zero” (when homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurring), and a strategy to achieve it. That plan then needs to be approved by the entire City Council to provide the transparency and accountability our community deserves.

Sonja Berndt
Retired State Prosecutor
Pasadena Resident

Rev. Bert Newton
Pasadena Resident

Denise Robb, Ph.D.
Throop Unitarian Church
Social Justice Committee
Pasadena Resident