Proposed Fremont camping ban on public property has outreach workers wary
An ordinance that would make it illegal for anyone to camp or maintain an encampment on public property in the city of Fremont is up for a vote on Tuesday night.
The ordinance defines camping as "means to place, pitch, or occupy facilities; to live temporarily in a camp facility or outdoors; or to use camp paraphernalia."
Camp facilities include tents and vehicles, while camp paraphernalia includes portable beds. If passed, the ordinance would be the strictest camping ban in the Bay Area.
In recent city council meetings, many residents spoke out at council chambers in favor of the ban and provided personal examples, including encampment fires next to their homes, vandalism, and theft.
However, the ordinance also includes a clause that has created an extra layer of concern for outreach workers.
"Any person causing, permitting, aiding, abetting, or concealing a violation of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor," the ordinance states.
Vivian Wan, the CEO of Abode Services, worried what this could mean for outreach workers at her nonprofit. Abode provides services and assistance for the unhoused in seven Bay Area counties, but the nonprofit started in Fremont.
"In reality, do I think police are going to round up Abode service workers? Do I really think they're going to arrest the nun that's offering a sandwich? I doubt it," Wan said. "However, it's that perception in and of itself that can really break that relationship with the people we care about. Honestly, it's an insult to my values. It's an insult to our organization. It's an insult to the community that I love."
Wan worries outreach workers will provide aid under a cloud of fear, while also putting themselves at risk in certain scenarios.
For example, Wan said outreach workers often rely on the trust their build with unhoused clients. There have been instances where police officers will ask outreach workers for information about clients, which outreach workers have provided at their own discretion and assessment.
"My staff should still feel safe to do their really noble jobs. It feels like we're being attacked as part of the problem that we're honestly trying to solve," Wan said.
She also pointed out the latest data in Fremont, which shows a 21% reduction in homelessness since 2022. She worries the ordinance will break trust that, she says, has taken years to build.
"Whenever I'm talking to community members who are frustrated, they often recount a bad encounter. And usually it's a really bad encounter. A dog of a person experiencing homelessness bites them or they get attacked. I think crimes need to be treated the same for housed and unhoused people. If my dog bit someone, I expect there would be repercussion. But the answer wouldn't be to ban all dog owners, right? The response doesn't make sense to the challenge they're trying to solve. Folks have tried this before and it doesn't end with fewer homeless people.," Wan said.
Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan said the ordinance is not intended to target outreach workers, adding he is open to amending and/or changing the language in the proposal.
"We need [outreach workers]. They are our army. So I think it's being misinterpreted that we're trying to penalize folks for helping. Absolutely not," Salwan said. "People can give water, food, tents. They can assist these individuals [and] do outreach. We want to make sure we're compassionate, but we're just trying to prevent safety concerns."
Salwan said the approach to reducing homelessness across Fremont moving forward will "be both compassionate and use common sense."
David Bonaccorsi, a lawyer and former Fremont city councilmember, said any outreach worker charged under the proposed ordinance should challenge it through the legal process.
"My advice would be to hire an attorney. And that's not what [outreach workers] are about. They're there to serve. They're not there to defend themselves against a criminal complaint," Bonaccorsi said.
Bonaccorsi is also part of Fremont For Everyone, a local organization advocating for affordable housing citywide. The organization began in 2018 under the name "Friends of the Navigation Center" to support the approval of Fremont's Housing Navigation Center.
He said the ordinance was "a solution that has no solution, at all."
"People are going to be happy in the short term, but you're only dealing with the symptoms and you're not dealing with the underlying causes," Bonaccorsi said. "There's an effort to make it about personal accountability, but it's a systemic issue."
Members of the Fremont City Council are scheduled to vote on the ordinance on Tuesday night.
