After the Fremont City Council passed its new camping ordinance, the homeless face new challenges for their livelihoods
Staff Writer
Ellis Vietor, 70, had been living a great life: he had a wife, worked a sustainable job in construction, and had thousands of dollars in savings. However, it all changed when his mother got brain cancer.
“[The treatment] ran up a $57,000 bill, [and] that was 2002. And it’s hard to get back on your feet when all this happens,” Vietor said. “In six months, at $500 a day, it ends up a big bill.” Soon enough, he had been forced to live on the streets.
Vietor is one of many affected by Fremont’s newly-enacted camping ordinance, which prohibits unhoused individuals from residing on public property. With stopping homelessness being one of the city’s top three priorities according to the newly-elected mayor Raj Salwan, the ordinance passed with a 6-to-1 vote, intending to curb encampments and promote public safety and pairing it with new affordable income programs and mental health initiatives.
For Vietor, life on the streets has been a struggle for survival in the last few months. “I had all [my] stuff taken and they didn’t put a note saying that I have to move it in three days. I just went to work, came home, and everything’s gone,” Vietor said. “I don’t have anything anymore.”
Matt Baker, 38, another homeless resident, described similar experiences. He explained how the police and city officials regularly clear his living space, confiscating personal belongings in the process. “If it wasn’t the state doing it, it would be robbery. All the trash is still here, but all the valuable stuff from before I was homeless is gone,” said Baker.
With few options left, many unhoused residents turn to community organizations for support. Bay Area Community Services (BACS) is an organization dedicated to helping homeless people, seeking to fight homelessness head-on and reduce the barriers to access services like housing assistance and mental health.
However, even these efforts face challenges. In addition to the ordinance, there is a clause in the legislation criminalizing “aiding” or “abetting” the homeless, making it a misdemeanor crime—carrying a penalty of a $1,000 fine or 6 months in jail—to help them. While Mayor Salwan has mentioned that the city will not punish anyone who provides resources to the unhoused, the city council has denied amending the language.
According to BACS, before the ban, it was interacting with 5-10 people on a daily basis and, while it has slowed down recently, it seeks to continue offering and bringing direct support and resources to the homeless.
The ordinance is set to take effect on March 14th, with the Fremont Police Chief saying he remains dedicated to enforcing that the ordinance is implemented fairly and efficiently.
With support becoming harder to access, many unhoused residents feel neglected. The groups they rely on for food, shelter, and medical care now face potential penalties for offering assistance, leaving those on the streets with even fewer lifelines.
“Homelessness isn’t a situation or a crisis to [the city]—it’s an identity,” Baker said. “It seems like the only thing everyone can agree on is that I should take all of my worldly possessions, throw them away, and go away and somehow that will help.”
Clint Wright, a homeless Fremont resident, stands in front of a nearby homeless encampment. The area, in the background, was shown in the city’s decision-making meeting, serving as the exemplar for why the ordinance needed to be passed (Photo Credit: Shiv Gurjar (11)).
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