Salinas officials enforce ordinance, cite 13 homeless people.

A group of homeless people showed up in Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas on Aug. 3 to face criminal citations for camping or having their personal belongings on Salinas city property, a violation of city law.

It was the first hearing held for criminal citations in relation to a controversial ordinance that bans homeless people from camping on city-owned property and allows the city to seize some of their personal belongings if they are found to be doing so.

The ordinance has been in effect since November 2014, but it wasn’t until June that the city began to enforce it in a more bureaucratic way: taking homeless people to court.

“The city’s first approach was voluntary compliance,” Salinas City Attorney Chris Callihan says. “When folks choose not to voluntarily comply with the law, there are consequences.”

Those consequences here include a maximum penalty of six months in Monterey County Jail and a $1,000 fine. For the 13 homeless people currently facing criminal citations, the verdict is still out.

“Homeless people are not going to be able to pay a fine, and now they will have a criminal record,” says attorney Anthony Prince, who unsuccessfully battled the ordinance in federal court.

The minimum penalty is no fine and no jail time. However, if these homeless residents don’t contest the allegations, which range from tying a tent to a city-owned fence and camping outside the hours of the city’s permitted 6pm to 6am schedule, they will have a criminal record. This could make it harder for them to apply for housing in instances where background checks are required.

The punishment will ultimately be decided by the Monterey County Superior Court judge presiding over each case; the city can only make a recommendation.

Callihan says the city will not recommend maximum penalties. “Ultimately, the point of the enforcement action is to gain compliance with the law,” he says.