Council Conducts Grants Pass Study Session

[Updated] After a discussion on the Grants Pass ruling, some City Council members said on Monday the Grants Pass ruling should be used in a care-first way as a point of entry to provide unhoused people more services.

Several Councilmembers also said the City should look at how the City’s Housing Opportunities and People Empowerment and Pasadena Outreach Response Team teams can be expanded.

The item on Monday was a study session, so there was no vote and those matters could not be set as policy.

Parts of the discussion could go to several committees.

Vice Mayor Steve Madison said Pasadena may experience more homelessness because people come here because of the services the City provides.

“I think we are doing top-of-class in Pasadena,” said Madison. “And still the numbers stay the same. The root causes are largely the same. If anything there are features in our community that make it more challenging to reduce the numbers.”

Madison said that Grants Pass could be a lever to provide access to people who need services by providing more contact.

“The people that are talking about empty storefronts, there shouldn’t be homeless people in there, there should be businesses in there.”

The June ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson found that enforcing generally applicable camping regulations does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

At a lengthy Council meeting, officials and community members debated whether Pasadena should change its policies in light of the decision. Some pushed for increased enforcement, while others advocated maintaining the city’s focus on services and housing.

Councilmember Justin Jones said expanding the Pasadena Outreach Response Team and Homeless Outreach-Psychiatric Evaluation (HOPE) would help the City.

“The PORT team is well-prepared and positioned to coordinate and execute services,” Jones said. “PORT needs vouchers for temporary housing, where PORT has autonomy to meet the immediate need of the person, before losing track of them to connect them to additional services. I’ve been out in the field with PORT and watched them connect temporary housing and services to a former classmate of mine. His life is changing for the better because of PORT. “

But Councilmember Tyron Hampton was cautious and said police should not go out and use the ruling to question people.

The meeting started with an in-depth report by the City Manager’s office that included background on the Supreme Court case and the services provided by the City.

The city, like the state, is in the middle of an affordable housing crisis.

“… At the end of the day, it’s about homes and we fight homelessness with homes,” said Councilmember Jess Rivas. “That kind of masks what a complex issue it is, but it’s a whole pipeline. As the city manager is discussing, we have to make sure we have enough housing to begin with.”

Early on, Mayor Victor Gordo made the City’s position clear.

“We are not looking to use this to arrest anyone,” Gordo said.

More than 30 people spoke before the City Council.

Many of those people implored the City Council not to round people up although that was never proposed.

“I don’t think Grants Pass provides us any additional discretion,” said Gordo. “What Grants Pass stood for is that we can enforce applicable laws including anti-camping laws.”

Gordo said the court said those laws could be enforced without violating the Eighth Amendment.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

Gordo repeated the need to partner with Los Angeles County for more services for people struggling with mental illness. He also called on correlating policies and services with the other cities in Los Angeles County and nearby cities in the San Fernando Valley.

But other Councilmembers interpreted the ruling differently.

“The only question we are looking at tonight is do we want to go back to a different type of enforcement.” said Councilmember Jason Lyon, when responding to the presentation.

The City wrote more than 600 citations prior to a 2018 Ninth Circuit Ruling.

Councilmember Felicia Williams supported using enforcement to get people more services.

“Instead of just arresting people and clearing encampments we should be putting people in services,” Williams said.