A federal judge is ordering officials with Anaheim, Orange, Costa Mesa and Orange County into court next week, and plans to ask them to show that local anti-camping ordinances aren’t being used to criminalize homelessness among the hundreds of people being evicted from encampments along the Santa Ana River.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter issued an order Sunday, Feb. 4, setting a hearing for Feb. 13 in a lawsuit filed on behalf of people being displaced.

“The court is concerned that persons who leave or are evicted from the riverbed may subsequently be cited by defendant cities under those cities’ anti-camping or anti-loitering laws, even though those persons may not be able to find a shelter or other place to sleep,” the judge wrote.

Carter requested the three cities and the county bring information to the hearing about how many citations or arrests have been made, if any, under anti-camping or anti-loitering laws since Jan. 1. His order won’t prevent the county from continuing to evict riverbed inhabitants between now and the hearing.

Sheriff’s deputies and county workers began clearing the county’s largest encampment on Jan. 22, and efforts have continued to ramp up since then.

Homeless advocates and attorneys mobilized in response, asserting that there isn’t enough affordable housing or shelters for the estimated 500 to 1,000 homeless people being displaced from the riverbed. In recent weeks, the county’s homeless shelters had room for only a few dozen more people, and there were around 200 openings at two armory shelters, which don’t allow people to stay during the day and operate only during colder months.

Many homeless people living along the river have said they will relocate to parks and streets in Anaheim and Orange. Officials from both cities have said they’ll actively discourage people from sleeping in parks while attempting to link homeless with services or shelter.

Anaheim city spokesman Mike Lyster said the city’s primary response to homelessness is attempting to link people with shelter and services. He noted that the city had found shelter for more than 900 people during the past four years.

But Lyster has said that when homeless people don’t engage with outreach workers, police will enforce the city’s anti-camping laws.

“If somebody’s camping in a doorway, if somebody’s blocking a sidewalk – after they’ve refused offers of help – that’s when we turn to enforcement to ensure our city won’t have undue impact from clearing the riverbed,” Lyster said on Jan. 22, the day the county began the process of evicting the encampment.

Orange city spokesman Paul Sitkoff said the city’s anti-camping laws predate the riverbed encampment evictions and said the city’s enforcement of its ordinance has nothing to do with the county’s action.

Carter’s call for a hearing next week comes in response to a lawsuit filed Thursday, Feb. 1 by attorney Brooke Weitzman, co-founder of Elder Law & Disability Rights Center, on behalf of seven homeless people. It seeks to block evictions from the riverbed through the issuance of an injunction.

The judge said the court will welcome testimony by parties on all sides of the encampment issue. Issues will include the circumstances that people living on the riverbed face, the county’s process for clearing the riverbed, how much shelter space is available and the number and background of homeless people in Orange County and in the riverbed.

Carter said he will welcome input from veterans’ groups, service providers, organizations that protect and house abused women and other cities affected by the county’s homeless crisis.

The county has moved 202 riverbed inhabitants into shelter since July, according to Orange County sheriff’s spokeswoman Carrie Braun.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer said that the people who have remained in the riverbed have largely refused help, citing surveys conducted by the sheriff’s department that he said the county will present to the judge. But other data from a county contractor states that around a quarter of the encampment’s inhabitants have sought help but haven’t been linked with shelter.

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