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From:Sara Matlin <br />To:publiccomment; MGR-Melissa Stevenson Diaz; MGR-Liz Lange; Council-Elmer MartinezSaballos; Council-Kaia <br />Eakin; Council-Isabella Chu; Council-Jeff Gee; Council-Diane Howard; Council-Marcella Padilla; <br />csturkin@redwoodcity.org <br />Subject:Agenda #8.A: Oppose the Ordinance Criminalizing Homelessness <br />Date:Monday, July 21, 2025 11:46:48 AM <br />Some people who received this message don't often get email from sara@smatlin.com. Learn why this isimportant <br />Dear Redwood City City Council Members, <br />I am a Redwood City homeowner and small business owner in Mayor Elmer Martinez Saballos’ <br />district. I’m also a volunteer with the ACLU of San Mateo County. I’m writing to ask you to <br />rethink passing the ordinance that criminalizes being unhoused. The proposed ordinance <br />rubber-stamps a flawed County ordinance, criminalizes homelessness, and does nothing to <br />address the real reasons people are living outside: lack of housing. <br />Redwood City staff went to great efforts to organize meetings to gather community input <br />about an ordinance that would criminalize being homeless. Many community members <br />expressed concerns and suggested alternatives, such as increased access to permanent <br />housing, safe parking or sanctioned encampments, and increased mental health services. But <br />then City staff simply copy-pasted the San Mateo County ordinance with only minor changes. <br />Why invest in extensive community engagement if you barely take the community’s input into <br />account? <br />Multiple community members noted that criminalizing camping reflects a “law enforcement <br />first” approach to homelessness. Nothing in the ordinance requires the City to do what <br />experts agree is necessary: have unarmed peer-support specialists and trained civilian <br />responders lead the response to encampments. If the City intends to use the best practice of <br />empowering trained, unarmed civilian peer-support and mental health professionals to lead <br />the crisis response effort, please write that into the ordinance. Criminalizing and displacing <br />unsheltered people wastes limited public funds citing, and arresting people. It traumatizes <br />people who are already experiencing trauma; fosters mistrust of law enforcement and service <br />providers; creates a cycle of fines, fees, and jail time; promotes unnecessary police encounters <br />which disparately lead to violent use of force; and makes it harder to gain access to stable <br />housing. <br />When the County was passing its ordinance, many details were missing, and supervisors <br />scrambled to add a mental and physical health screening to the ordinance at the last minute. <br />But they didn’t include any details about how that screening should be conducted to protect <br />people’s rights and wellbeing, and no specific funding was allocated for trained staff to <br />complete those assessments. In addition, the ordinance does not require the County (or City) <br />to audit offers of shelter or property storage records to ensure that people’s rights are not <br />violated. Similarly, the County ordinance didn’t include any additional protocols or funding for <br />pre-trial diversion. If you decide to adopt a nearly-identical anti-homelessness ordinance, <br />please make sure that these protections, protocols, and budget investments are in place.