S.J. Supervisors adopt homeless policy
STOCKTON — Homeless individuals will not be arrested throughout San Joaquin County just because they are homeless, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office said this week.
“We will continue to prosecute crimes that could be committed by the homeless,” Deputy District Attorney Scott Fichtner told the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors Tuesday afternoon.
“But the blanket statement that we will not prosecute the homeless at all is simply not true,” he said.
Fichtner had to explain his department’s position on arresting the homeless after comments made by San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar at a June 26 budget meeting were recalled Tuesday.
Supervisors thought the district attorney had made comments that her department will never prosecute a homeless individual.
But Fichtner clarified, stating it is not a crime to be homeless, but there are members of the county’s homeless community who commit crimes.
If they are arrested by local law enforcement officers, Fichtner said his department will use its discretion to prosecute.
The term discretion also raised debate during the meeting, as the policy presented to supervisors Tuesday included a departmental priority that states “Consistent with Constitutional limitations, exercise authority and discretion in the application of all laws enacted to protect the health, safety and welfare of all county residents.”
Supervisor Bob Elliott took issue with the statement’s language, noting the board’s intent when it first decided to create the policy in June was to ensure all residents — homeless or not — were arrested and prosecuted on an equal level.
Elliott felt the word “discretion” meant that not all residents who commit crimes would be arrested and prosecuted equally for the same infractions.
He said many of his constituents have raised concerns that homeless individuals are sometimes given more leeway and benefit of doubt when contacted by law enforcement for illegal activity.
Calling the language presented Tuesday ‘bureaucratic nonsense,” Elliott said the statement should give guidance, not state what the county is already doing.
“It really waters down the intent of what the board’s guidance was,” he said. “Why state the obvious here? This doesn’t give any guidance at all in terms of policy.”
Supervisor Chuck Winn, whose District 4 encompasses Lodi, agreed the language was a bit obvious, but took issue with the term “constitutional.”
“I don’t think this statement is consistent with our intended policy,” he said. “And I’m offended by mentioning (constitutional) in this policy. This county operates under the constitution and we don’t need to tell people we’re doing it.”
Supervisors unanimously adopted its homeless policy, with slight changes to the text that ensures all residents are held responsible for crimes committed.
When supervisors adopted the 2019-2020 budget in June, they also directed staff to make homelessness an operational priority for all county departments and create a policy statement on the issue.
Leading the effort to implement and enforce the policy, staff said, would be the District Attorney’s Office, the Sheriff ’s Office, Health Care Services and the community development department.
Winn also took issue with the fact that only four departments were tasked with leading the policy effort, stating the county has several other agencies that should be included in the statement language.
Those agencies include the county administrator’s office, for whom the homeless coordinator works, and code enforcement, which has the authority to cite those who deface county property.
County Administrator Monica Nino said all county departments will tackle the homelessness issue, but the four lead agencies named in the policy language have had the most interaction with that particular population.
“We tried to put in departments with mobile units, or programs like the Sheriff’s Community Car Program,” she said. “We identified these four because they are out in the community all the time and already conducting outreach with our homeless.”
The Community Car Program assigns duties to densely populated areas of the county, where they help establish neighborhood watch programs, remove abandoned vehicles or conduct hazardous resident abatement.
Other policy actions include creating educational outreach materials and providing that to residents, businesses and the homeless community; as well as incorporating homeless topics at other public meetings such as the county planning commission or San Joaquin Farm Bureau.
The homeless policy can be viewed at https: //tinyurl.com/y424bt8v, and by scrolling to page 663.