Permit Required for Homeless in Nevada City
November 17th, 2012Via: CBS:
A police chief says he’s found a one-of-a-kind way to manage a growing problem in his city, and it’s putting the homeless on the hot seat.
A new law would give Nevada City the power to hand out permits to a small group of homeless, which would give them permission to sleep in public. While the new ordinance would give some homeless a place to stay, it would tell others, mostly the troublemakers and the criminals, to stay away.
“I come down here every fall,” said Bob Barton, who chooses to be homeless in Nevada City.
For Barton, the new ordinance that would essentially identify law-abiding homeless and reward them is music to his ears.
“The goal is to start managing the homeless population within our city,” said Chief James Wickham.
Wickham asked council members to pass a no-camping ordinance.
“It just basically means you can’t set up a tent. You can’t live in your vehicle. You can’t live in the woods in Nevada City,” he said.
That is unless you have a permit.
I’ll bet this is a thin straw away from legislation that says ‘If you have no fixed address, you must be tagged so we can help you in trauma situations.’ Homeless persons are less likely to have ‘state-approved’ identifying documents handy, if at all. Tagging with chips will be next on this menu, for sure. I mean, how handy would it be for terrosrist who want to loiter, move around, stay under radar to assume the look and demeanour of a ‘homeless person’. Damn! We need to tag, and track, all homeless persons since their mode of living would be one way terorists could be invisible amongst us….