COSTA MESA, Calif. (TheBlaze/AP) — Army veteran Don Matyja was
getting by alright on the streets of this city tucked in Southern
California suburbia until he got ticketed for smoking in the park.
Matyja, who has been homeless since he was evicted nearly two years ago,
had trouble paying the fine and getting to court — and now a $25
penalty has ballooned to $600.
The ticket is just one of myriad new challenges facing Matyja and
others living on the streets in Orange County, where a number of cities
have recently passed ordinances that ban everything from smoking in the
park to sleeping in cars to leaning bikes against trees in a region
better known for its beaches than its 30,000 homeless people.
Cities have long struggled with how to deal with the homeless, but
the new ordinances here echo what homeless advocates say is a rash of
regulations nationwide as municipalities grapple with how to address
those living on their streets within the constraints of ever-tightening
budgets. The rules may go unnoticed by most, but the homeless say they
are a thinly veiled attempt to push them out of one city and into
another by criminalizing the daily activities they cannot avoid.
There’s been a sharp uptick in the past year in the number of cities
passing ordinances against doing things on public property such as
sitting, lying down, sleeping, standing in a public street, loitering,
public urination, jaywalking and panhandling, said Neil Donovan, the
executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.
READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment