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On September 17, the Ukiah City Council voted unanimously to amend Ukiah’s anti-camping ordinance. The changes were presented by City Assistant Attorney Darcy Vaughn and Police Chief Tom Corning, who insisted the ordinance was simply “another tool in the toolbox” for addressing homelessness.
Framed as a matter of protocol and compliance with state directives, the amendment removed the last safeguard, making it possible to cite individuals for camping even when no shelter is available. In fact, this ordinance targets homeless people as criminals for the simple reality of being without shelter or housing.
Our city officials described the ordinance as another tool in the toolbox, language meant to give the impression of progress, as if a shiny new tool could fix the crisis. But it is just words to cover for poor solutions. If the tool you have is a hammer but the crisis is a screw, you need a screwdriver. The hammer will not affix the screw.
The same principle applies here: for houseless individuals with nowhere to go, you cannot address homelessness without providing housing, treatment and support. Those are the tools to begin repair of the community and families, not laws that criminalize poverty, disabilities, mental illness and addiction.
What the amendment actually does is remove the safeguard that without available shelter, people could not be arrested or cited for existing or “public camping” on the street. With that safeguard removed, unhoused street folks are a target for citations and arrest.
The city took a list of camping words and defined them to fit neatly into the narrative of the ordinance. A “camp facility” can mean nothing more than a tarp or a tent. “Camp paraphernalia” stretches to include blankets, sleeping bags, even a cooking pot. A “camp site” is any space where those items are found, and to “occupy” simply means to be present. To stand, to sit, to rest, to exist without a home or shelter is now a criminal offense.
What stood out for me was that the members of the City Council seemed to be in la-la land, their own little world of make-believe. They took the ordinance revision at face value without digging deeper. There were a few questions asked, but they were very superficial in nature. None of them asked about the cost of the citation. Is it $50, $100, $500? Nor did they ask about the homeless individual’s ability to pay. What happens if they cannot pay? Do they get arrested? Does it tack on more fees? What about these so-called collaborations, about getting people to agree to shelter and linking them to services?
Let me get this straight: law enforcement, who continually claim they are not mental health workers, are now ensuring that it is 100% their duty to aid people into help? Now isn’t that one hell of a turn of events!
No one asked about access and barriers to services for these individuals. Why? Because they simply do not know. How could they, when they are in their own bubble and the only entity with authority that showed up was, you guessed it, the Ukiah Police Department. Where were the service providers? Why do they stay silent?
Our city officials did not just frame this ordinance as a matter of compliance; they revealed the stigma that continues to shape policy. Councilmember Heather Criss admitted that “housing is a human right” but quickly removed any responsibility by stating that “we are not there yet,” while also calling the state of homelessness “atrocious” and “embarrassing.” Councilmember Mari Rodin added that living in encampments is “very dangerous,” reinforcing fear rather than focusing on solutions. And Vice Mayor Susan Sher, while acknowledging that homelessness is not a one-size-fits-all issue, said she felt sympathy for the “neat and tidy ones,” not for those most in need of intervention. That distinction reveals that stigma is still driving the conversation, with compassion extended only to those who appear acceptable while the ones in most severe distress are written off.
Repeatedly, city staff called citations and jail a “last resort,” pointing to promised collaboration with service providers as proof that this ordinance would not be casually applied. Collaboration sounds effective, looks good on paper, and makes for tidy talking points. But after hours, when people are most vulnerable, there are no providers available to be present, leaving police as the only responders.
And the police only have so many tools: citation or jail. In reality, this “last resort” is going to be the only resort when half the time there is no service person available to coordinate options. On top of that, the council discussed the aspect of finding shelter for the individual. What shelter? Where? How? Ukiah has one very small, limited shelter that is not capable of these accommodations, which makes the claim of navigating people to shelter and support nothing more than lip service.
At the end of the day, this ordinance does not create housing, treatment or support. It creates citations and criminal records. The city can call that collaboration if it wants, but the truth is simpler: punishing people for poverty will never be a solution.
yeah..this is just ukiah going back to business as usual.. gotta keep a proper amount of necessity in the form of court dates to keep that budget up for the new courthouse..it looks good on paper and gives the illusion that something is being done.. the wording is everything…like the whole “care court” revision being called “voluntary” ..when the choice is being locked up or signing up for a program of control with frequent court dates the person will obviously “volunteer” to the option that doesnt put them behind bars even though they are doing so under duress and not actually volunteering by any true sense of the word. And some people have experienced severe trauma that leaves them with debilitating post traumatic stress which in turn prevents them from entering conditions such as those found in the local homeless shelter.. myself included..i can withstand about 5 minutes there before i start feeling like someone is going to open fire..not because the place is badly managed..just the aggressive attitudes of some residents.. and thus i have no options and have been told that if i cannot stay there then there is no available assistance for me..I have no criminal record…someone very close to me accidentally shot themselves in the head while shaking my hand…i was in denial that it had negatively affected me until i realized the behaviors that put me in a houseless situation were all common reactions to the symptoms of PTSD.. unfortunately it has cost me everything..and now it looks like its going to also cost me the ability to say that i have no criminal record… thats a heavy cost to me because its the last chunk of self worth that i hold in this situation.. “game on” i suppose..
Hi there, unfortunately, I had no idea that the Mendo voice had even posted my opinion piece until just now months later. If there is something I can help you with please reach out to me at Maziemalone@yahoo.com
Where are the measure B funds? Oh that went towards the mental wing of the new jail not the mental health treatment centers this county uses.
Hi Transparency, sorry I just found out that this article was posted actually as I last understood. The Jail did not use measure be funds to build the BH wing of the Jail they were going to, but they decided they didn’t need it. I just call it a jail because that’s what it is. They built a new Jail behavioral health wing my ass.lol🙃
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California is already in a significant state of decline. It’s going to get far worse. The elites in Silicon Valley, and people like the one who wrote this article, are completely out of touch with the hardworking people, especially farmers, who make it possible for them to live on a daily basis.
This piece was written from lived local experience here in Mendocino County, not from Silicon Valley. The focus was on our own community’s policies and the human impact behind them.
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I personally know some of the homeless, in Ukiah. Where are they to go,? I just don’t understand, if Chico can help there homeless, why can’t Ukiah. People suck
Hi Myturntospeak there are a lot of reasons most of it has to do with lack of education, understanding, intervention, and protocols and most importantly housing. The system is fractured from the ground up.
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Wasn’t Corning also the same guy that peed on a homeless man while on duty?
So. You find it acceptable that our children can’t walk to school because the sidewalks are filled with dangerous and violent drug addicts, mentally ill, and alcoholics camping? Where do their rights end and do ours ever begin? I retreated to my car for safety with my grandchild because an “unhoused” drug addicted mentally ill man was pacing back and forth in front of the Safeway door with a hatchet. I’ve walked around two homeless people having sex under a blanket on the sidewalk in the shopping center. I’ve seen a man chasing his girlfriend who was naked with a towel after a fight broke out in the car they were living in and having sex on state street outside the bank. I e seen the “unhoused” squatting and taking a crap in front of businesses doorways on the sidewalk. Last week an “unhoused” man was carving into the sidewalk with two large knives talking to himself. Do you think a kid or anyone should just be brave, say a prayer, and hope for the best as they try to walk past? One day I saw an “ unhoused’ woman walking around with a hatchet accusing everyone in the shopping center parking lot of stealing her belongings. What is your solution?. Please. Tell us all. Do the taxpayers have any rights to live free of fear and being a victim of these crimes? Is your answer to buy everyone a house? We don’t have a homeless problem. We have a drug problem! Throwing houses at a drug problem doesn’t solve the problem. Some people can’t be housed without changing mental health laws and housing them against their will. Throwing housing at “unhoused” drug addicted individuals with ZERO requirements does not solve the problem and puts other people in danger. I’ve seen an “unhoused” person eating his own poop. What is your desired housing for this person? An apartment complex with families. The homeless shelter with families? A hotel room for life? What? Tell us all please. We want to know. What about the “unhoused” man masterbating in front of the court house as families tried to walk down the sidewalk to go to dinner? What you don’t talk about is all of the violent crimes, sex crimes, vandalism crimes, and property crimes committed by these people against the public and against each other. That issue is nonexistent to you.
Finally. Someone calling it exactly what it is. Thank you.
A one way bus ticket back to where ever the hell the vast number of these losers came from would be local tax dollars well spent.
Ukiah cannot accomodate.
We are full up.
Go home, treatment, or jail. Choices.
Yo Mr. Citizen,
What you call “violent crimes” are mostly scenes of mental illness, addiction, and public breakdown, not random attacks.
And the truth is, most unhoused people aren’t violent at all. They’re far more likely to be victims of violence than to cause it.
I’ve been writing about this for years, and if you’d read beyond a single article, you’d know I’m not saying do nothing. I’m saying do the right things: treatment that actually treats, housing that stabilizes, and systems that stop abandoning people until they become the crisis you now fear.
So no, I don’t ignore the problem. I confront it every day. What I refuse to do is join the chorus that confuses punishment with progress.
Fear won’t fix what neglect created. We can’t keep blaming people for the fallout of a system that refuses to act until it’s too late.
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Obviously the ” counsel” doesn’t have a diverse enough group to properly represent the citizens of our county , we are not talking about criminals ( although there are likely some ) as is true on every level of social and economic status, it’s this “click ” that separates instead of united the role of Mendocino , I am proud to be in mendo and at the same time can’t help but feel like we are going backwards ….. Unanimous means there isn’t one person that questions this ordinance , all the “Privileged” sheep flocking together scoffing at the less fortunate deeming them a nusince the needs to be charged with the already difficult challenges they face .
Have any of the reps of Ukiah lived in poverty, been hungry, cold and all alone? No, why, because they have what it takes to live the high life. Let them walk a block in their shoes, oh but they couldnt cause its hurts to bad. Day in and out, thats what they do, thats all their is to do. About all the empty buildings in Ukiah, fix them, then fill em
I Bobby j.gray have been trying to get a civil lawyer now since July of 2025 , and do not know how to go about it . I’ve been in special education classes my whole life and don’t understand how to get a lawyer that will take my case. In July 30th 2025 I was camping I thought on BLM property come to find out I wasn’t. But without chance I was accompanied by 3 police officers that had said I had a warrant out of Virginia which I’ve never been . Then the story changed to Arizona for a dui that is exportable back to Arizona for court. Yet I knew I finished those classes and paid that bill in January of 2015 and knew there wasn’t a warrant but I ended up in hand cuffs and my belongs they had taken at my camp my wallet ,phone ,brief case ,medication and my dog they had taken. Yet didn’t travel with me to be logged in with booking.
They stopped at the sheriff’s office first one officer got out while another got in then drove next door to booking . Booking they couldn’t take me because my blood pressure was to high and I had been in the hospital the day before and found out I had cardiac heart failure on the 29th of July 2025 which I tried to explain at my camp that I couldn’t get all my belongings up the hill by noon when it was only 9am by myself .
As they took me to the hospital 9hours later well within the 8th hour I blacked out from exhaustion while a nurse thought it best to take that tine to practice her iv skills as she came in didn’t wake me and got the needle ready still didn’t wake me but jabbed a needle in my artery on my right side as I came up in tears from the pain I seen her run out the door saying she didn’t get it that I had jumped . Why would they need an iv after 8 hrs? When they could’ve already had one within the first hour I was there.? When let go blood pressure was still high 193/132 I then got realised to go to jail and wait for the Marshall’s to come get me to take me to Arizona.
Well 2 days I wait in a cold cell with a fever from all the stress and cold cement asking for a blanket hourly. They finally came 2 of them came to pick me up without any of my belongs they had gathered from my camp that I guess was never recorded and off I went . The driver drove so fast and with the windows down making me more sick then I already was and no mercy on rolling the window up or even slowing down as I prayed .
I didn’t get dropped off in Arizona like I thought or was told my warrant was I got dropped off in San Francisco to confront a judge for what matter I do not know . As I was in the cell for over an hour confused as to why I’m here I thought it’s a hate crime all homeless gay men belong in San Francisco thats what this is. I got to see the judge and she said that she has no idea why I’m here everything was taken care of in January of 2015 and to let me go immediately I then asked the judge how was I to get home she then called an Uber for me back to ukiah. When I got back to ukiah I seen my friend that had my dog from the pound and then she took me to the sheriff’s office where they had no idea what I was talking about or any clue as to where my belongs where.
But my moms credit card has been being used since that day till November if this year with my iPhone and number that has called my mom numerous times yet I have them not and haven’t seen them since July 30th and they have yet to be returned . I believe the police had stopped and gave my belonging to my brother that just so happen to be on our way to the jail in the beginning and he had taken it upon himself to spend our moms money and to use my phone but I didn’t give the cops the right to drop my belongings off to him I asked if my dog could be dropped off there and that my belongings where to go with me because there is a dispute between my northern and I. I believe they did anyways to get rid of me not thinking id be back that same day they had dropped me off.