Grover Beach City Council has adopted a new ordinance aimed at regulating camping and vehicle habitation in an effort to address homelessness.
The ordinance sets regulations for when and where camping is allowed. One key rule is that camps must be at least 200 feet away from homes and schools.
Grover Beach Police Chief John Peters said the city held numerous community meetings over the past few years to develop the new rules.
“We've held neighborhood watch meetings that are in the neighborhoods of those affected, in particular around the El Camino Real area,” Peters said.
The ordinance will include ”no parking” signs to limit access to the El Camino Real open space area. Previously, Grover Beach had an outdated ordinance that couldn’t be enforced due to a 2018 court ruling requiring cities to offer enough shelter options before enforcing encampment policies.
Peters said the city has been working to provide more housing options.
“The City of Grover Beach has been very instrumental in addressing homelessness,” Peters said. “We have, through various grant funds and CDBG funding, allocated over a million dollars to programs to assist the homeless.”
The city partnered with the nonprofit 5Cities Homeless Coalition to develop housing, including the Cabins for Change program and the Barca Street housing facility.
Peters said these housing options offer homeless people an opportunity to get back on their feet.
“Those people can also transition out of temporary housing into transitional housing that will get them into a more stable environment, as well as a potential working environment,” Peters said.
The new ordinance regulating camping and vehicle habitation will go into effect on April 28. Peters said the police department is actively reaching out to people living in homeless encampment areas to let them know about the new rules and available resources.
“But we also want to do that with compassion,” Peters said. “We understand that people have fallen on difficult times, so what we want to do is make sure that those individuals have the resources available to them.”
Meanwhile, Peters said the City has more housing for homeless individuals in the works.
