ACTION ALERT - Help Kill SB 1011 Which Criminalizes Homelessness

Senate Bill 1011 would prohibit sitting, lying, sleeping, or storing personal property within 500 feet of any public or private school, open space, or major transit stop. Should the state of California pass this bill, it would criminalize homelessness across wide swaths of the state without offering real, tangible solutions to the state's housing crisis.  According to a 2023 RAND report, laws criminalizing houselessness “fail to decrease the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, despite widespread enforcement through encampment clearing.

With a public hearing in the Senate Safety Committee tomorrow, over 100 organizations across California joined the Equal Rights for Every Neighbor coalition in opposing SB1011, submitting an opposition letter to the California Senate Public Safety Committee this week. These groups include people with lived experience of houselessness, service provider organizations, criminal justice advocates, anti-poverty organizations, and labor organizations.

The letter notes:

Not a single jurisdiction that has implemented laws making the experience of houselessness a crime can show these laws work to achieve any valid policy. To the contrary, laws that make living on our public streets or sidewalks a crime are completely ineffective at achieving stated goals, (1) reducing the number of people living unsheltered, (2) making houselessness less visible by “holding individuals accountable,” and (3) lowering crime rates. In fact, a recent report

measuring the effectiveness of an ordinance criminalizing people experiencing houselessness, passed as Section 41.18 in Los Angeles in 2021, concludes that 41.18 has failed to achieve any of its goals.

Criminalization drives people into further poverty and keeps people unhoused longer.

Please help us TODAY and join us in the fight against criminalization of homelessness and pushing our legislators towards what we know works to end homelessness–housing and services, NOT criminalization.

Steps -

• If you will not be at the capitol for the Senate Public Safety Committee hearing tomorrow please contact Clarissa Woo Hermosillo (cc’d) at cwoo@aclusocal.org if you'd like an ER4EN coalition legislative advocates to list your organization in a group “Me Too” during the hearing.
• Use the ER4EN social media toolkit to post TODAY and spread the word using your social media networks. Remind the Public Safety Committee that you oppose SB 1011!

Sample posts/tweets-

We need to move forward on homelessness - and passing SB 1011 would only move California backwards. The Senate Public Safety Committee must vote NO on SB 1011 @aishabbwahab @SteveBradford @Scott_Wiener @NancySkinnerCA #NOonSB1011

Unhoused folks are disproportionately Black and Brown. Criminalizing them would move CA backwards on fighting racism @aishabbwahab @SteveBradford @Scott_Wiener @NancySkinnerCA #NOonSB1011

SB 1011= Harm. “When I was ticketed for living outside, it made me feel like I didn’t belong in my own community. It made me feel like a second-class community member who didn’t even have the right to exist.” @aishabbwahab #NOonSB1011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LP2TEP9iPw

Videos demonstrating criminalization of unhouses persons which can be posted on social media-

This is what SB 1011 would look like, #NOonSB1011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhb_cgwFrFQ

We’ve done this before, and it hasn’t worked. Hear from folks who have experienced criminalization and urge your legislators to vote #NOonSB1011 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?app=desktop&list=PLVyEsrj4Vzwbsuxf8RrYt0m_k8EyT1xsP

Again, we call on our fearless and dedicated supporters and advocates to join us today and voice your opposition to SB 1011 ahead of tomorrow's hearing in the Senate Public Safety Committee. Discrimination against unhoused people has led to public policies and practices like SB1011 that increasingly harm, rather than support, marginalized members of our communities. We don't stand for it, and we know our supports don't either.

Opposition Letter - SB1011 Opposition Letter from Coalition

Social media toolkit - #NoonSB1011 Toolkit