Encinitas City Council to discuss proposals impacting the homeless

ENCINITAS, Calif. (FOX5/KUSI) -- The Encinitas City Council is considering tightening regulations on three laws that will likely impact the homeless.

"We've worked over the time of the past six months to really make an improvement here in Encinitas as far as managing crime downtown, our homeless population and providing services for them, while at the same time providing safety for our residents that they are looking for," said Encinitas City Councilmember Jim O'Hara.

O'Hara represents District 2, which includes downtown Encinitas. He proposed updates to the three ordinances.

"To give our sheriffs the ability to enact the ordinances in a way that's effective -- in a way that ensures quality of life but is compassionate to the residents and the people that we are trying to provide services for," he explained, in part.

The first proposed change would impact those who camp on private property. The current law doesn't allow people to camp on private property at night.

The proposed change would update the policy to remove at night, meaning this would apply at all hours of the day.

The second proposed change impacts people sleeping in their cars. Current law says people can't sleep or lie down in their cars from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. O'Hara wants to extend the hours to begin at dusk and end at dawn.

Some people questioned this proposed update, but he explained a lot of the changes on the table align with the services the city already has in place, like the safe parking program run by Jewish Family Services.

"Some of the ordinances don't kick in until 10 o'clock. You can't apply to be in some of these parking facilities after 8 o'clock. So these people that we show up to try to help don't have anywhere to go. So if we change the ordinance and go out there and address them earlier we can actually get them into places where they get the help and services they need," said O'Hara.

The third change would impact people who park their recreational vehicles in public places.
Current law says they can't park their RVs from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The proposed change would extend the hours to 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

O'Hara tells me no immediate changes will be made. The city council meeting begins at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Public comment requests will be accepted until 30 minutes before the meeting. You can send in a comment online here.