This study session was called to discuss the City of Stockton's response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which overturned Martin v. Boise and now allows cities to enforce anti-camping ordinances even when shelter beds are insufficient. The meeting focused on the implications for local enforcement, cleanup efforts, diversion programs, and future strategies. No formal action was taken, but staff presented data, survey results, and potential ordinance modifications for council guidance.
Today is August 27th, 2024. City Clerk, please take role. Councilmember Padilla. Present. Councilmember Wright. Present. Councilmember Blauer. Present. Councilmember Lenz is absent. Councilmember Via Padua. Present. Vice Mayor Wormsley is absent. Mayor Lincoln. Present. We have a quorum. Thank you. I want to first and foremost welcome the public and thank you for coming out this morning for this very important subject and discussion. To my right, which is your left if you're facing me. Behind the two screens, uh, there are refreshments and light snacks for the public. If you would like to help yourself, please do so at any point during the meeting today. I also want to say thank you to my council colleagues, uh, City Manager Black, uh, City Staff, Stockton Police Department, Fire Department, Public Works, Economic Development, all of our homeless advocates throughout the community, and the community as a whole. These have been difficult times from the COVID pandemic to inflation. Over the past four years, the City of Stockton has partnered and has built 10 emergency shelter projects, nine permanent supportive housing projects, and four affordable housing projects. Upon completion, these projects will add more than 600 beds and 862 housing units for individuals and for families. We have launched the CARELINK Crisis Intervention Mobile Response Program with our partner community medical center. Over 6,000 people have received critical services and resources while experiencing some sort of behavioral health crisis. We have expended every resource available to us and have intentionally invested time into building relationships with those living in our homeless encampments in Stockton, offering access to shelter and resources. Despite incredible progress, our hands have been tied when it comes to enforcing our local ordinances and getting people into the services they need to receive healing. The Supreme, the recent Supreme Court ruling on grants pass. B. Johnson provides us with the much needed authority to enforce encamp camping ordinances and bring individuals and families into available shelter, housing, and services, helping them transition to self-independence. We will continue, excuse me, we will continue to build on our foundation of providing healing and housing for the homeless while maintaining safe public spaces for our whole community. At this time, I would I'm gonna open the floor for public comments for the public. If you're if you're not uh aware yet, uh there is a podium there. Uh there is some uh blue request to speak cards. Um if you would like to speak, please fill one of those cards out and turn it in, and we'll make sure that you have an opportunity to share your public uh opinion. Um I will remind the public that uh you will have every person who will have one three-minute opportunity to provide a public comment uh this morning. Uh with that being said, the public public comments uh have to uh be specifically for uh the topic of discussion today and what the item that has been agendized. Um outside of that uh will be prohibited from sharing that comment during this meeting. You have to wait for one of our next regular scheduled city council meetings. Um so without further ado, um, City Clerk, do we have any public comments this morning? We do, Mayor. Can I have Nancy Moonis to the podium, please? Good morning. Uh my name is Nancy Munice. I am a community member, and I've worked in uh several nonprofits throughout Sawakin County, and I just wanted to speak on the homelessness issue. I agree with grant's pass in regards to local city officials uh enacting some sort of ordinance or policy surrounding um homelessness. I am mindful of the community uh nonprofits, local nonprofits, several directors here and executives have wrote very great programs to continually fund the issue surrounding our homelessness crisis. But I wanted to suggest that our local decision makers please be mindful of the need of uh a rent control or caps into some sort of policy surrounding the need to control these rents because that's an issue, regardless of how many units we have, how many uh funding we give to our our shelters and our nonprofits that are helping the homelessness crisis. There's still vacant units out here in San Joaquin County throughout the state of California, and it is a housing crisis, and we need to enact some sort of ordinance.