East Palo Alto mayor calls for Peninsula collaboration to clear homeless encampments
East Palo Alto Mayor Antonio Lopez on Wednesday stood outside Redwood City Hall and announced his plan to tackle homelessness while calling for other city leaders on the Peninsula to also adopt a strategic approach.
The ordinance would give unhoused individuals in encampments at least two written warnings and two offers of shelter before being cleared, Lopez said.
The move to prioritize addressing homelessness comes after the U.S. Supreme Court's June decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson that gives cities greater authority to evict people from homeless encampments before offering shelter. That led Gov. Gavin Newsom to issue an executive order for state agencies to clear encampments on state land last month.
Some cities, like San Francisco, have used the decision as an opportunity to ramp up their homeless encampment sweeps. But homeless rights advocates have been critical of the decision.
"It is going to make homelessness worse if cities take the Supreme Court up on its invitation to criminalize homelessness," said Nisha Kashyap, an attorney and program director for one of the law firms representing the Coalition on Homelessness.
The organization originally sued San Francisco in 2022 for its treatment of unhoused individuals.
Lopez's plan instead offers shelter first as a solution in an effort to take a more compassionate approach.
"I'm not interested in criminalizing homelessness. I don't think that's the right solution," he said. "I think what we ought to do is provide a humane response."
Because reasons for homelessness vary, each unhoused person will be evaluated individually to determine the appropriate course of action, Lopez said. A medical and mental health screening would be provided by clinicians on the first warning.
"People are homeless for a myriad of reasons like domestic violence, unaffordability, and addiction," Lopez said. "We don't want to do a 'one size fits all' solution."
A point-in-time count conducted in January 2024 across the county revealed that there were 81 people living on the streets in East Palo Alto compared to 169 counted in 2022. Redwood City's unhoused population decreased from 245 to 169 between 2022 and 2024. Point-in-time counts are conducted in the county every two years in which volunteers go out on one day searching for unhoused individuals in every corner of the county and tally them up.
While East Palo Alto and Redwood City saw reductions in people living on the streets, nearly every other city in the county saw an increase. Overall, the total amount of people experiencing homelessness in the county grew by 18% from 2022 to 2024.
Lopez is calling for cities in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties to take a similar approach because the plan won't be effective unless there is a collaboration. If unhoused people who refuse services or shelter are pushed out of one city, they will simply move to another nearby.
"It's a balloon problem. If you push the problem on one side of the balloon, it'll go somewhere else," Lopez said. "This needs to be a collective regional response."
The press conference was held in Redwood City because it has the highest unhoused population in San Mateo County.
Maggie Cornejo, a Redwood City native and planning commissioner, also spoke to show her support for Lopez's plan and encourage the Redwood City mayor to assume a similar strategy. She currently lives in downtown Redwood City near homeless encampments.
"I stand with Mayor Lopez because the perspectives of the youth need to be heard while my heart aches for the unhoused," Cornejo said. "Not long ago, I witnessed a young person from our unhoused community being beaten with blood covered all over his face. Is this a dignity and safety we deserve? Is this the future we want for our cities?"
Just across the street from Redwood City Hall, several unhoused people sat under the sun smoking cigarettes, playing instruments and sharing food.
Jack Danczak, who has been experiencing homelessness for a little over a year, played a tune on his guitar he called "Homeless Blues."
Danczak lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic and lived with his father for many years as his primary caregiver. He became homeless after his father died and couldn't afford to pay rent, he said in an interview.
"I would accept shelter if I was offered," he said. "But then they also tend to have very rigid rules like a prison."
Robin Vaka, an outreach peer support specialist with Redwood City Downtown Streets Team, agreed that some shelters have too many rules that deter people from wanting to stay.
The Redwood City Downtown Streets Team provides support for unhoused people by connecting them with team members who have experienced homelessness themselves.
"They put up gates and they put up security guards. You've got to sign in and you've got to sign out. You've got to do this and you've got to do that," she said. "That's a little miniature prison."
Vaka also believes that a comprehensive approach needs to be taken instead solely giving people a place to sleep.
"People have mental health issues. People have substance abuse issues. People have PTSD," she said. "It's not going to all be taken care of right away."
Part of Lopez' plan includes giving unhoused people the opportunity to be connected to housing, mental health and substance use treatment services in the county such as Star Vista, the Samaritan House, WeHOPE and LifeMoves.
WeHOPE is an organization that provides various services to help unhoused people get back on their feet, including emergency food and shelter, job training and life skills. They have an emergency shelter in East Palo Alto, which Lopez says has helped reduce the city's the unhoused population.
Lopez did not specify what course of action East Palo Alto would take if unhoused people refused both services and shelter.
His plan is modeled after an ordinance enacted by the county earlier this year called the "Hopeful Horizons: Empowering Lives Initiative." The ordinance makes it a misdemeanor for people to live in an encampment on public property after receiving at least two written warnings and two offers of shelter. However it's only enforceable in unincorporated parts of the county.
Lopez's ordinance needs to be passed by the East Palo Alto city council before being implemented.
"It's not going to be solved overnight," Vaka said. "It's going to take everybody to be on the same page."