Tougher camping penalties for the homeless have been approved in Northern California’s Sutter County.

Law enforcement can now issue a misdemeanor on the first violation, at their discretion. Before, it would only be an infraction for the first offense.

The county said the amended ordinance is on par with neighboring jurisdictions, like Yuba County.

“The other thing is that you have to move your belongings more than a hundred yards away because what we had found in the past is you go and enforce to pick up and move, and they would move it 50 feet away and essentially nothing changed,” said Steve Smith, county administrator.

Smith said the goal is to get the unhoused population to accept help from available services.

“Many of these people we know and have known for many years, and we try to get them help, try to get them into the Better Way Shelter,” he said.

Sarah Eberhardt-Rios, the director of the county’s Human Health Services department, said it will continue going out with law enforcement officials to offer services to those impacted by the ordinance. 

The amendment also comes on the heels of a big cleanup effort spearheaded by the sheriff’s office.

“Our office has contacted about 75 camps in the Feather River bottoms year to date and has gotten rid of about 1,500 cubic yards of debris. So, to put that in perspective, you have people using the rivers for recreational use,” said Sierra Pedley, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.

Tiffany, who only wanted to be identified by her first name, is newly homeless after leaving an abusive relationship. She’s been camping because she says she has no other options.

“What else is somebody going to do? They’re already homeless, so they’re going to keep on camping and they’re going to end up going to jail over it,” she said.

Tiffany said she is worried about the change to the ordinance, as the services she’s been offered so far have fallen through.

“There are some people who want to be homeless because they don’t want to pay anything,” she said. “There are a lot more that don’t want to be homeless that are literally out here and they have to.”

While the language in the ordinance has changed, the sheriff’s office says it will still use a compassionate approach first.

“We want to offer help to these individuals and help them the best we can with resources available,” Pedley said. “We’ll be slightly lenient, but after so many offenses and infractions, they will get issued a misdemeanor citation.”

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