California homeless advocates say some local governments want to stop their aid

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — Sometimes, tree branches proved the best place to hide food so other people wouldn’t steal it.

Bridges served as cover and a place to sleep when Dez Martinez was homeless. The trees offered hiding spots. She didn’t choose homelessness. Instead, after hearing elected officials claim unhoused people didn’t want help, the Fresno native chose advocacy.

Now, she wants to stop local governments from criminalizing organizations that help the unhoused.

“I survived things that I don’t even want to discuss,” said Martinez, founder of We Are Not Invisible, speaking in favor of Senate Bill 634. “I’ve seen people humiliated, begging to keep their blankets and their dad’s ashes.”

Martinez spoke Tuesday at a press conference for the state Senate bill. Written by state Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, a Pasadena Democrat, the bill seeks to restrict local governments from passing ordinances that prohibit people or groups from offering support services to unhoused people.

Pérez pointed to the city of Fremont, which earlier this year passed an ordinance prohibiting camping and storing personal items on public property. The ordinance initially made aiding and abetting an unhoused person a misdemeanor. However, the City Council removed that language after public outcry.

“This makes absolutely no sense,” Pérez said. “It’s wrong. These are not solutions. These are creating more problems.”

Martinez said she’s seen officers confiscate unhoused people’s survival gear. Now she’s watching cities target the organizations that help the people who need it the most.

“Why? Because we bear witness,” she added. “Because we hold them accountable. And if nobody’s filming, it never happened.”

Martinez argued that it costs just over $100 a day to incarcerate someone in Fresno, which would climb into the millions of dollars a year if all the county’s unsheltered population was behind bars. That money should go toward housing instead.

Several advocates spoke in support of Pérez’s bill outside the state Capitol.

Gregory Cramer, with Disability Rights California, called homelessness a disability issue. Every day someone remains unhoused increases their chances of facing a new disability or of exacerbating an existing one.

He said dozens of Golden State cities have passed ordinances targeting unhoused people since the 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision Grants Pass v. Johnson . That ruling stated a prohibition on unhoused people camping on public property doesn’t violate constitutional rights.

“Helping somebody survive should never be treated as a crime,” Cramer said.

Brandy Spencer said she approached homelessness through the lens of domestic violence. With Healthy Alternatives to Violent Environments, or HAVEN, Spencer said domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness, especially for women.

“If there’s no safe place to go, how can people heal?” Spencer asked.

Pérez called her legislation “common sense.” She’s seen family members face homelessness and death, which led to her bill.

“It’s been highly disturbing even watching this trend happen,” Pérez said of local governments passing their prohibitive ordinances.

The bill has opposition. The city of Santa Ana in a bill analysis stated that, while acknowledging the legislation’s intent, it still would stymie local governments’ ability to address people and businesses’ quality-of-life concerns.

Pushback like that led Pérez to tweak the bill into its current form.

Initially, her legislation called for prohibiting a city or county from passing an ordinance that imposed civil or criminal penalties on an unhoused person for doing something related to homelessness or basic survival. That portion was removed and the bill now focuses on prohibiting local governments from penalizing those who help unhoused people.

The bill passed out of the Senate Local Government Committee and awaits a vote on the Senate floor. It must secure a passing vote by June 6 to reach the Assembly.