During last night’s special meeting about homeless services, the Davis City Council voted to promote an Encampment Response Protocol, make changes to the encampment reporting system for community members, introduce revisions to the camping regulations ordinance to better protect public and private properties and direct staff to return with options and costing for potential expansion of services for unsheltered individuals. These additions will become part of the ecosystem of services that the City and its partners have worked hard to develop to assist the unsheltered or housing insecure population with compassion while maintaining the safety of local businesses, public spaces, downtown and the general community.
Davis Municipal Code Changes Related to Encampments
Revisions to the existing code include better defining camping and camping paraphernalia as well as including additional prohibited areas, such as public and private properties, whereas the previous ordinance language only covered parks and open space areas. The Council made no changes regarding how a person’s personal property with value is to be handled and stored.
The City Homeless Outreach Team led by the Department of Social Services and Housing, in partnership with a multitude of other service provision agencies and organizations, will prioritize a compassion-first approach to connecting people to services, and utilize all available tools and approaches to connect people with assistance and shelter before utilizing this ordinance. The updated camping regulations ordinance will become effective in January.
Encampment Response Protocol
The City and its partners will be working together to inform the community about the various changes and explain how staff will maintain the safety of downtown, local businesses, community and public spaces. The City will activate an encampment response, deploying outreach staff, posting notices, and coordinating clean-up where needed. The process is intended to be clear and transparent for all stakeholders, to ensure the homeless encampment response is balanced and equitable.
Calls for service from the community requesting a response to unsheltered homelessness will initiate the following protocol:
- Step 1: Outreach and Engagement: The City-staffed Homeless Outreach Team will be the first point of contact deployed to encampment sites throughout Davis to offer services and connection to basic needs to the unsheltered. The City has strengthened with Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency, Davis Community Meals and Housing, Turning Point Community Programs and others for a coordinated and balanced response.
- Step 2: Compliance: If the situation requires an additional level of support, the Homeless Outreach Team will partner with the Davis Police Department and work with an embedded mental health clinician for crisis assessments and referrals.
- Step 3: Enforcement: If engagement and compliance are ineffective, law enforcement will be called to protect people and property, maintain public order and enforce the law. Law enforcement will aim to address situations with care and minimize the criminalization of the homeless whenever possible while balancing the health and safety of the public.
Encampment Reporting System for Community Members
The City encourages two ways to report issues related to unsheltered people in need and/or encampments:
- Non-urgent response (My Davis): Community complaints regarding abandoned property, trash, grocery carts, encampments, vehicles and recreational vehicles should be submitted through the My Davis portal, which is available as an app on cellphones or via the City’s website (www.cityofdavis.org). Complaints received will be forwarded to all appropriate departments. At the conclusion of the complaint, a disposition will be sent to the complainant advising them of the outcome.
- Urgent response (Public Safety Dispatch): Urgent responses require immediate action. Complaints may include individuals sleeping in front of the business doors, aggressive behavior or erratic and concerning behavior. Depending on the circumstance, community members should call either the Police Department’s non-emergency number (530-747-5400) or 911 for emergency situations. Public safety dispatchers will either dispatch homeless outreach, a mobile clinician, or a police officer.
Options and Costing for Potential Expansion of Services
The City Council requested that staff return with additional information about possible additional or revised Respite Center hours; sanctioned camping; a possible loitering ordinance; community navigators; a Downtown Streets Team Peer Support Program; and Promotores, a Davis Joint Unified School District-affiliated group that includes Spanish-speaking community navigators to actively share information about homelessness prevention.
The Social Services and Housing Department is also working with the faith-based community about engaging with the unhoused on an organizational level. This potential strengthening the ecosystem of care in Davis is dependent on local congregations determining if they have the capacity to create and sustain the infrastructure required serve as an access point for outreach and services to Davis homeless.
Additional information on homelessness is available on the City’s Social Services and Housing and the Police Department’s webpages at www.cityofdavis.org. To watch the video from the City Council special meeting, visit: https://davis.granicus.com/player/clip/1756?view_id=6&redirect=true.
Press contact: Barbara Archer, barcher@cityofdavis.org, 530-400-3418
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The following list shares the current and ongoing programs and services available to the unsheltered in Davis.
