State Court Puts Anti-Camping Decree on Hold in Santa Ana

A state appellate court has issued a temporary injunction barring the city of Santa Ana from enforcing its anti-camping ordinance aimed at homeless people.

A Superior Court judge in April upheld the camping ban, invoked last summer to keep about 275 homeless people from living in the Civic Center area. Legal Aid Society lawyers have appealed on behalf of the homeless.

The injunction issued Monday is in effect while the case is argued in the appellate court.

Also on Monday, 25 homeless people pleaded not guilty in court to charges that they violated the camping ban ordinance. Legal Aid lawyers offered to drop their fight against the ban if the city allowed homeless people to bed down only at night, but city officials refused the arrangement.

Many residents and city employees credited the anti-camping ordinance with cleaning up the Civic Center, which at one time included a shantytown of makeshift huts and tents. City officials have tried for years to evict the homeless, citing unsanitary and unsafe conditions, vandalism and harassment of employees.

But lawyers who came to the aid of the homeless said the ordinance is constitutionally vague and effectively makes homelessness a crime.