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A Crescent City man has proposed using Army tents to get the homeless off the street and satisfy a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling governing where people are allowed to sleep.

Kevin Bingham, who was renovating the old Glen’s Bakery at 3rd and G streets, said the tents could offer those who are homeless shelter from the elements for about $300,000. He’s proposing locating the tents at the old juvenile hall facility on Williams Street in Crescent City. Bingham said he has already talked with South Coast Lumber about donating plywood for flooring and said showers and restrooms could be built with volunteer labor.

Bingham said he’s hoping to present his proposal to a joint meeting of the Crescent City Council and the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors.

“If we go back and forth from supervisors and the City Council and back, it’s going to take forever,” Bingham said of city and county efforts to address homelessness locally. “Why can’t we all sit down together and solve the issue? It’s been going on for so long.”

Crescent City and Del Norte County officials and residents have been discussing homelessness and camping since the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Martin v. the City of Boise last year that prosecuting homeless persons for sleeping in public areas is unconstitutional.

The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors on Aug. 27 heard a presentation from representatives of Rogue Retreat, a Medford-based nonprofit that uses a model combining tiny houses with case management to get the homeless into permanent housing. The county is also using state No Place Like Home dollars to work with Chico-based Housing Tools to craft a permanent supportive housing plan for Del Norte.

Nonprofit organizations, such as Our Daily Bread Ministries, are working with the Department of Health and Human Services and District 2 Supervisor Lori Cowan to develop mobile showers. Our Daily Bread, meanwhile, is working toward becoming a 24-hour shelter, though progress is slow.

Crescent City revised its ordinances on where and for how long oversized vehicles, including RVs, are able to park. There’s also a new leash law for dogs within city limits, according to City Attorney Martha Rice. Crescent City also attempted to revise its ordinance on camping in city parks and beaches, but received pushback from the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

In March 29, 2019 letter to the Crescent City Council, the ACLU of Northern California said it was concerned about the city’s proposed camping ordinance. The organization argued that it provided a narrow exception for people to sleep or rest on public property between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. “on nights when there is no available overnight shelter.”

Those violating the ordinance would be subject to a fine of $300 and anyone guilty of a “willful violation” would be fined of up to $500 and could possibly be jailed for 30 days.

The ACLU also took issue with the city’s leash law, occupancy of an RV in a residential areafor seven consecutive days, and using a car or trailer for lodging on a public street or public property without a permit.

The ACLU’s letter noted that there are about 650 people in Crescent City that lack permanent housing, 150 of which are students. The organization also noted the limited shelter beds available, stating that Our Daily Bread offers eight beds, but isn’t opened consistently and is faith-based. Another shelter, Harrington House, has fewer than 30 beds and is limited to survivors of domestic violence, the ACLU stated.

“We are deeply concerned that, if adopted, the proposed ordinances will result in widespread constitutional and statutory violations,” the letter states. “The camping and parking prohibitions appear intended to make Crescent City’s unhoused population less visible and shielded from public view, and to place such harsh restrictions on where and when unhoused people are allowed to simply exist that remaining in Crescent City would become virtually impossible.”

According to Rice, though, since Crescent City doesn’t have a permanent shelter for the homeless, the ACLU’s point is moot.

“Why have that fight right now when we don’t have any shelter to direct them to?” Rice said. “We’ll have to wait until a later date when we have a better idea of what options (are available).”

As a result of the ACLU's letter, the Crescent City Council tabled voting on the proposed ordinances. City Manager Eric Wier sent the ACLU a reply in April, stating that while it doesn't agree with the organization, it believes reviewing the concerns the ACLU raised is important before moving forward on any final decisions.

At Beachfront Park, the city’s police officers and public works crew are trying to keep things as clean and orderly as possible, Rice said. She noted that the retired Crescent City Police Chief Ivan Minsal developed relationships with those camping at the park and they have responded when he’s made requests. Though people aren’t always nice, they generally move to another area when asked, Rice said.

If a resident reserves an area of the park for an event, Rice said, city crews go in early to move campers out and clean it.

“It’s interesting, ‘cause you’ll go out some days and you might see what seems like a lot of individuals out in the park tenting, camping, living,” Rice said. “The next day, you’ll go out and there won’t be a single person. It’ll be full of tourists.”

Bingham has been working with another local attorney, David Cooper, who in turn has been working with the Veterans of Foreign Wars bringing meals to homeless veterans. Bingham noted that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Martin v. Boise can’t be enforced until a community has an adequate shelter for the homeless. He argues that those who don’t want the services can be arrested “over and over again” until they move to another area.

Bingham called Rogue Retreat’s Hope Village model a good thing, but it wouldn’t be enough to house all the local homeless and, he points out, they’re not heated.

“That’s why tents to me are a better idea because you can get 40 people in each tent,” Bingham said. “It would be a lot easier to heat the structure than it would be (to build) tiny houses. It’s nice, but it doesn’t really solve the problem.”

Rather than using grant dollars to address homelessness, Bingham said, much of the work to provide shelter for them could be done with donations and volunteers. He said he’s already spoken with South Coast Lumber in Brookings about donating plywood for flooring. Bingham said he has friends that are plumbers that would be willing to build a bank of showers and toilets “fairly inexpensively if it was at juvenile hall — there’s already a sewer there.”

“If you have to go to a bare spot ground and then put in sewer, water and electric, it’s quite pricey,” Bingham said. “This would provide essential basic human needs: Heat, bathrooms and hot water.”

Cooper noted that over the years Del Norte County has been aggressive when it comes to finding housing for homeless veterans.

A member of VFW Post 1381 in Crescent City, Cooper has also worked with its commander, Jerry Johnson, to deliver meals to homeless veterans.

“Some time ago, he had actually managed to put together, on private land, a small staging area where homeless veterans were brought in to store (their) things,” Cooper said. “Shelter and food was available and they were taken into connections with services so they could get off the street. And it was successful.”

Cooper said he had a proposal for expanding that program and has launched into a series of discussions with county supervisors. But, he said, he has yet to find a location for expanding services for homeless veterans, though he’s received encouragement from Cowan.

“She’s encouraged that we go ahead and proceed with our planning efforts without a venue,” he said. “Just plan based on certain estimated sizes of, like, 20 beds.”

When asked what a staging area for homeless veterans would look like, Cooper said it would be a place where they would have access to storage lockers and a bed. Men and women’s sleeping areas would be segregated by gender, he said. Volunteers would also provide food, he said. Sanitation in the form of port o’ potties or other facilities would also be available, Cooper said.

“It would be a place where either it has easy access to where services are or it has the ability to have services come out to the location,” Cooper said. “We’re talking about medical assessments. Not actual treatment; people can be referred to treatment. Mental assessments, who would qualify for certain types of assistance, access to social services (like) food stamps and access to HUD to get people on a path toward more permanent housing and shelter.”

Cooper said he also envisions such a program to offer those who use it access to legal assistance to address nonpayment of fines or old misdemeanors to get them employable.

Rice said Bingham’s proposal has the potential to satisfy the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, but it would require vetting and addressing logistical issues.

“I don’t know of a case or a situation where it said, ‘Well because… it’s not made out of wood and cement it can’t qualify,’” she said. “Even if it did work, there’s the location issue; safety as far as fire, wind and rain every time you talk about having a tent-like structure, and, of course, security. Those are all things that are going to be, in any proposal — brick and mortar or tent style — that’s going to be an issue and it’s going to cost a lot of money.”

Rice also noted that the definition of adequate shelter also has to be applied to individuals as well as groups of people. A shelter could be adequate for one person, but for someone in a wheelchair if they weren’t able to access that shelter, it wouldn’t be adequate for them, she said.

“If somebody’s unlawfully camping, in order for them to be criminally cited, that shelter would have to be available and adequate for that individual,” she said. “This is what a lot of larger cities are struggling with because a lot of unsheltered people have mental health issues and addiction problems and disabilities. We also have registered sex offenders that are transient; would they be allowed in?”

Bingham presented his proposal to the Crescent City Council on Sept. 3 said he’s also spoken with county supervisors Bob Berkowitz and Roger Gitlin about his proposal. He praised the work Our Daily Bread is doing, but he said it’s a “drop in the bucket.”

“It all takes so much time,” he said of many of the proposals being considered for addressing homeless in Del Norte County. “We’re going to be into the rainy season and people are going to be getting pneumonia. I’m hoping to expedite things by having a joint session. My next goal is to get supervisors and the Council to agree to a joint session and have the public there and solve this issue in a couple of weeks.”

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