We stopped SB 1011! | ACLU of Southern California

Huge kudos to everyone who came together to defeat SB 1011 (Jones), a truly awful bill that prohibits sitting, lying, sleeping, or storing personal property within 500 feet of any public or private school, open space, or major transit stop, making large swaths of cities off-limits to unhoused neighbors.

We did it! Here are a few highlights:

• Check out yesterday’s Public Safety Committee hearing here (click on Public Safety Committee): https://www.senate.ca.gov/media-archive?time[media-element-17484]=1673.955855

• See media coverage of the hearing here:
  • https://amp.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article287729370.html
  • https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/04/california-homeless-camp-ban/

• IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS: join us in thanking the three committee members—Senators Wahab, Skinner, and Weiner—who voted NOE on SB 1011. Here is a sample tweet you can personalize for your organization: https://twitter.com/ACLU_CalAction/status/1780666968913408258

• So much gratitude to Desiree Martinez and Brandon Greene for their fact-based, humane, eloquent, and heartfelt testimony. It cut through the denigrating and dehumanizing lies and stereotypes on which the opposition relied. Here are two amazing quotes from their testimony, which was filled with amazing quotes!

• Desiree (starting at 42.30 min): I have witnessed and endured law enforcement over the years searching, seizing, and destroying our property and our lives. I have witnessed and endured brutal punishments on us—especially those that suffer with physical disabilities—punished because we do not move fast enough, until everything is taken from us: our blankets, our food, clothing, medicine, tents, tarps, even our dog food. Anything that would help us survive the next day.

• Brandon (starting at 41 min): It’s anti-Black. Black people and people of color are over-represented in the unhoused population and the criminal-legal system. And this bill would exacerbate both. We know that the solution to houselessness is more homes and more affordable housing. This bill does neither, and passes the buck to unhoused people instead of the government, which is actually responsible for the problem.

• Some choice quotes from committee members during the hearing:

• Senator Wahab, Chairperson: “Just because individuals that are unhoused make people uncomfortable does not mean that it should be criminalized. And this bill does that.”

• Senator Skinner: “It’s kind of like trying to make a problem invisible versus addressing the core of the problem.”

• Turnout was amazing! I counted 77 Me Too comments in opposition including group Me Toos listed by people at the hearing. There was one Me Too in support. A special shout out to the many advocates with lived expertise from Camp Resolution, Homeless Unions around the state, and others who showed up to speak truth to power. You shifted the conversation!

• Our well-researched talking points, sign on coalition letter, social media toolkit, the organizing it took to meet with the offices of committee members, turn people out for the hearing, mobilize folx to call the committee members, and much more—all of these efforts came together to decisively defeat the bill.

• Vote count: the bill was stalled on a 1-3 vote with Senator Kelly Seyarto (R) voting in favor of the measure, Senators Wahab (D-Silicon Valley) , Skinner (D-Berkley), and Wiener (D-San Francisco) opposing the measure, and Senator Bradford (D-Gardena) abstaining from the measure. I will note that this is the same committee that stopped Jones’ similar SB 31 last year with one Aye vote, one Noe vote, and three members abstaining. So we have made progress  by flipping abstaining members to NOE votes—even though this bill (unlike last year’s SB 31) had bipartisan support!

SB 1011 was granted reconsideration and is eligible to be voted on again in committee before the April 26, 2024 deadline. We believe it is highly unlikely that the bill will be reconsidered, but we’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, I hope everyone is taking a breath and relishing this win. We did it together!

Celebrating after the hearing!                                                        Desiree and Brandon                    Desiree speaking truth to power

….And one Call-to-Action before you go continue celebrating! SB 1011 is harmful and wrong. So are funding cuts for effective solutions. We know the real solutions to our housing crisis is HOUSING – not defunding critical investments in housing and services. Click through and join Bring California Home partners in this action alert to SAVE HOUSING & HOUSELESSNESS FUNDING IN THIS YEAR’S CA BUDGET. Just 5 mins of your time will go a long way in advance of tomorrow’s Budget Subcommittee 4 hearing. Please act now!