HOMELESS COURT POP-UP CLEARS BARRIERS TO GIVE A FRESH START
Carlsbad event helps with traffic tickets, offers haircuts, showers, other services
Among all the challenges homeless people face in getting off the street, sometimes their first step toward a new life can be blocked by something as simple as an unpaid traffic ticket.
Mike Pursel, 62, has been homeless in Oceanside for about three years. He has been anxious that he could lose his license, and even the vehicle he lives in, because of the $378 in traffic fines he cannot pay.
“Hopefully, they’ll squash three parking tickets I got,” he said Friday morning while sitting on a chair outside the Carlsbad City Library Learning Center.
Pursel was waiting his turn for an appearance at Homeless Court, where a public defender would work with the District Attorney’s Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles to clear his tickets. He was one of about 50 people expected to appear at the event Friday.
Homeless Court was created about 33 years ago for people like Pursel, who are homeless but have records, outstanding fines or warrants for arrests that might prevent them from employment, housing or other benefits.
The court is held in San Diego County Superior Court or, on a rotating basis, at other locations. This year related events have been held in South Bay, East County and now North County as a way of making the process more accessible countywide.
“People facing homelessness have so many barriers,” said District Attorney Summer Stephan, who was in Carlsbad on Friday. “For us it may seem easy to just go to court and get rid of your infraction or ticket, talk to a judge. But that seems so far away and different for homeless people.”
Unlike full Homeless Court hearings where a defendant appears before a judge who dismisses charges against a person who has gone through a program, the new events specifically are to resolves issues with the Department of Motor Vehicles and to recall related arrest warrants.
Attorney Matt Wechter with the Public Defender’s Office said those
actions will allow eligible defendants to enter into programs, which could range from 30-day treatments to a six-month residential rehab stay. On Friday, participants had their records checked by the DMV at one table, Wechter and other public defenders met with them at another, and attorneys from the District Attorney’s Office sat at another.
Judge David Berry approved the resolutions over the phone from the courthouse.
People who were referred to programs didn’t have far to go to find one. In the parking lot were booths for Catholic Charities, Brother Benno’s, Interfaith Community Services, Community Resource Center, Exodus Recovery and other service providers. Humanity Showers also was present along with barbers giving free haircuts.
Anna Haynes attended Homeless Court to clear a
DMV debt, and later that day she received the keys to an apartment she was provided from a local homeless service organization.
“A lot of people don’t know the steps to take to get into housing and to get their life back,” Haynes said. “I’m now saying that I’m living in San Diego. I’m not just living on the streets.”
She found help with her caseworker from Brother Benno’s and now is looking forward to continuing her classes at MiraCosta College with hopes of opening a small business.
Tim Kasner, 38, is in a sober living facility but recently learned he had two warrants and would have to pay $1,000 in fines to get his driver’s license reinstated. On Friday, he left the court with a clean slate and a plan to find a job.
“In less than five months, I’ve turned my whole life around,” he said.