For many years, cities like Fullerton had one primary (legal) tool for dealing with the visible presence of homelessness in the form of encampments—anti-camping ordinances that prevented people from sleeping overnight on public or private lands. Last year, a court decision, Martin v. Boise, essentially took that tool away from many cities, including Fullerton.
Under Martin v. Boise, cities may not criminalize sleeping in public places if there are not adequate shelter bed spaces in the city. According to the court, “the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter.”
As of today, Fullerton does not have a permanent year-round homeless shelter, and thus may not enforce its anti-camping ordinance.
The legal precedent established by Martin v. Boise grew out of an interpretation of the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution and its prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment—in this case—criminalizing poverty.
In the past several months, a fairly substantial homeless encampment has been established along Gilbert St. in west Fullerton, adjacent to St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church.

Homeless encampment along Gilbert St. in Fullerton.
At the August 6 Fullerton City Council meeting, a few residents of west Fullerton expressed their concern about the homeless encampment that exists in their neighborhood.
One resident said that kids in the area don’t feel safe with the encampment, and spoke of drugs, trash, feces, and urine.
“What happened to the enforcement that was going to be happening—the street sweeping, the cleaning? I don’t see any of that,” she said.
Another resident named Laura, who lives near the Gilbert encampment, said, “We have three kids under 5 and it’s been a really big issue. We have to call the police pretty often…We feel unsafe just in our own front yard now…We’re just hoping that you guys can help right now.”
Another resident blamed St. Philip Benizi church for “bringing” the homeless to the area when they opened their grounds to let homeless folks sleep there. For two years, Father Dennis Kriz allowed a certain number of homeless people to sleep on his church grounds. Now, those folks are sleeping on the sidewalk adjacent to his church, next to a large sign declaring to the city, “Build a Shelter.” Recently, hundreds of members of the faith community packed city council chambers, successfully encouraging the city to declare an “Emergency Shelter Crisis”—with the intent of making it easier to build shelters.

Sign on St. Philip Benizi church fence near the encampment.
“There needs to be more [shelter] capacity,” City Manger Ken Domer said. Currently two shelters are being built in Buena Park and Placentia, with state funds in coordination with 13 cities of north Orange County.
Domer said that CityNet, the city’s contracted homeless outreach services, has increased their outreach in that area to five times a week.
He said that one challenge to getting folks into shelters is the lack of mental health services, and that now, through the court, CalOptima is getting involved, which is the delivery system for mental health and services—MediCal.
Mayor Protem Fitzgerald requested that the mayor send a letter to the CalOptima Board, requesting their assistance.
“CalOptima has charge over programs for the mentally ill, who need to get out here on the streets with us to assess the people who are out there so that they can get the help they need,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald said that local churches, under a recent city ordinance, have the ability to provide shelter for up to 12 homeless people, so long as the church meets certain requirements (the shelter must be indoors and have bathroom facilities).
“I know quite a few churches in town who have that ability, and tomorrow this could be solved if the churches would quit telling the government we need to solve this problem, and take up the mantle to provide the hope that these people need to get off the street. So I encourage you to look to the faith community in this town to step up to the plate here and help our residents and help these people get the help they need,” Fitzgerald said.
Council Member Whitaker said, “What I’m hearing from residents is they really want to see some actions. They want to see when they put in a call, when they feel threatened, when there is a hazard that needs dealing with…When that happens, we need to, as a city government, respond rapidly. We have safety issues, clearance issues, sidewalks being blocked completely bleeding out into streets and creating hazards there as well.”
Whitaker said, “I understand that people have rights, but those rights shouldn’t supercede our ability to transit streets and sidewalks safely throughout the city.”
Domer said that the city recently cited a couple homeless folks for blocking the sidewalk and preventing disabled persons accessibility. However the city’s ability to “clear” the camp is constrained by Martin v. Boise, and the recently-settled Orange County Catholic Worker case.
The city manager added that homelessness itself is not a crime, so people cannot simply be arrested for sleeping on the streets, although if there is a criminal act associated (drugs, etc.), then they can enforce that.
I visited the encampment, and St. Philip Benizi church, on August 15th to see things for myself. I first met with Father Dennis, to ask him why his church doesn’t open up 12 shelter beds, as is allowed under city ordinance.
He said that, according to the most recent Point in Time count, there are around 370 homeless folks in Fullerton—thus sheltering 12 people would put a small dent in the problem, when the city has the ability to open a shelter that would help hundreds.
Regarding the upcoming shelters in Buena Park and Placentia, the city has 35 slots in each of those, so even those will be inadequate to meet the total need.
“In this, our main role is advocacy. We can help with volunteers. But when you have a problem where there’s 370 people…This is where government is useful—you build one thing that takes care of all of them, and perhaps you can assign the churches to volunteer,” Father Dennis said.
I headed out to the encampment, and noticed that Fullerton’s Homeless Liaison Team, along with CityNet, were doing their regular outreach, offering a connection to existing services.

A homeless liaison officer speaks with a man at the encampment who was caught smoking meth.
Two men were seated on the sidewalk, and an officer told me they had been caught smoking meth.
I spoke with a couple other men, who were minding their own business on the sidewalk next to a tent. One man named Scott said he’d been homeless for two years due to work gaps and alcoholism.
He said he needs a steady job and a bus pass so he can get to the places he needs to get back on his feet.
Another man named Dave was working on a drawing. He said he’s been homeless for three months because he could no longer afford the $1800 rent on his $14/hour wage.
He said his wife is paralyzed and he couldn’t make enough to house her and their two kids.
“They evicted us. My wife and kids are staying in a motel. We don’t have anywhere to go right now—we bounce around from place to place. I go to work every day from right here,” he said.
It turns out Dave has a job for a publishing company but doesn’t make enough to pay for rent.
I tell him about the Armory shelter opening in October, and ask if he has stayed there before.
“I’ve never been in a shelter in my life. Never been homeless [until now],” he said.
The Armory emergency shelter will re-open on October 15. The Buena Park shelter is set to open in December. There are currently no plans to build a permanent shelter for Fullerton’s approximately 370 homeless.

CityNet employees work on outreach forms while homeless liaison officers deal with a drug issue.
Categories: Local News
Excellent and quite comprehensive article. The ONE POINT that would need to be clarified would be the statement that “CityNet, the city’s contracted homeless outreach services, has increased their outreach in that area to five times a week.” If “that area” is to mean the GIlbert Street encampment, then this would be false. CityNet generally comes there once a week, including this past week.
The only week that CityNet has come to St. Philips (or since June to the encampment on the sidewalk just off of our grounds) _every day_ was the last week that the encampment was on our grounds. THAT ONE WEEK both CityNet and the County came every single day, stayed pretty much the whole morning each day AND WERE ABLE TO MOVE NINE PEOPLE or 1/3 of the encampment into shelters. They have not done so either before or since, despite the clear effectiveness of that one week’s intensive presence.
And to explain to Readers why this is important: Because of the OC’s coordinated entry system into the county’s shelters (in itself not a bad idea as there needs to be some order / triage to prioritize who gets into the county’s still very limited shelter space), THE ONLY WAY INTO THE SHELTERS in Fullerton is through CityNet and the County Health Services. There is simply no other way. So if CityNet (or County Health Services) don’t come, then the people sleeping on the sidewalk on Gilbert St. can not hope to get off of the street.
Now to be fair to CityNet, until recently CityNet was only paid by the City to do outreach in Fullerton two days a week, of which one of those days was by the Library / St. Mary’s. So one can’t blame them for not being by St. Philip’s everyday, when they are only being paid for two to cover the entire city.
But these are things that the citizenry ought to know. If the City’s outreach is being conducted on a shoestring, then it can not be as effective / successful as most of Fullerton’s citizens would hope / expect it to be.
But this is then the whole point of building the needed shelter space: If the needed shelter space were present, then “outreach” could be done _within the shelters themselves_ (that’s why these shelters are now called “navigation centers”) and much time and even money would be saved by sparing even the outreach workers the necessity of talking with clipboards in hand to people responding to them out of tents on the street.
I live a couple houses down the church and no longer allow my kids to walk the dog. One time when I was with my toddler daughter I had a homeless man come out of the church to get my daughter attention. I also am a Realtor and when I try to show property in Fullerton I get so much negative comments about what side of Euclid they won’t bother to look at houses at because of the homeless. Lived here in Fullerton for 30 years and live ot here but lately it’s been looking ugly. So sad.
Jesse, thank you for your continuing advocacy for homeless folx.
Having been homeless myself briefly, I feel that this is a highly misunderstood population of people that house owners love to see as a “threat” and feel “unsafe” and make the neighborhood “ugly”.
Are people that heartless and vapid?
Even if a homeless person is doing meth, nobody asks *why* , yet the opiod addiction is an “epidemic” and “crisis” because the face of that is a white, working class man.
I spend most my time in fullerton and Anaheim and people should be ashamed of themselves for not only judging this population but even thinking that sleeping on the street and then punishing a person for that is okay (yet you go to prison for leaving a dog out for a night or two ). Even in the most oppressive regimes, there are at least beds provided for regime prisoners in camps (DPRK, Chinese Muslim camps, US internment camps for Japanese Americans and so on) That says a lot about how we as a society treat the most vulnerable of folks
Since most of my time is spent on public spaces, and I sometimes do get confused for homeless because of my backpack and bags .. .I’ve befriended many many many folks , and they are the smartest, usually nicest and faith filled people I’ve come across. Many times I’ve said “God bless” to homeless folk and they say it back
I’ve said “God bless” to well dressed office workers in downtown Anaheim and get angry glares, if anything at all. Many times I’ve panhandled there for small change or for a cigarette, and all the well dressed suits got angry
Guess who not only gave me a cigarette , but also shared their food when I ran out of food stamps?
Certainly not the middle class people who always comment “think of the children” “i don’t feel safe”, “my house is on the wrong side of Euclid” (booohooohoo).
Truly those who have nothing have a soul, a heart, empathy..
I’ve never had a place to call my own since turning 19 , led a very transitory life…and time and time again all I experience from home owners is hate , suspician and judgement if not indifference.
Much rather would spend some time smoking a cigarette with a homeless person than drink with the ta tas at DTF.
What that pastor did in opening up his plot….God bless him. I hope other churches take note.
I have to agree with the anonymous reader that homeowners themselves are a victim in this. You become a prisoner in your own home because you’re afraid to step out near the encampment. Your property value goes down, not of your wrongdoing, but because homeless people decided to camp near your home. You sometimes drive to nicer neighborhood just to walk your dogs. You talk about homeless folks are victims of society. Well, so are middle class families that work hard to pay their bills, provide food for their family and pay their taxes to contribute to society.
The article talked about 2 men smoking meth and you want me to feel sorry for these people and help them? Why would I help anyone that doesn’t want to help themselves get out of their current situation? Studies have shown that homelessness brings drug use, vandalism, public urination and defecation, prostitution and public intoxication. Why would I want to invite that to my neighborhood.
Gimme a break…
Yeah it must be really hard for you that these people have no where to live, you poor thing.