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Orozco, Norma <br />From: Carrie Stein < <br />Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2023 12:17 PM <br />To: eComment <br />Subject: I oppose the inhumane criminalization within the proposed Intoxication Detention <br />and Service Offering Policy! <br />We need to focus on housing and voluntary services —not police and jails. <br />• The policy is premised on false assumptions about the <br />problem. The policy is premised on the false assumption that people are <br />refusing housing and services and must be forced by our criminal legal <br />system to get help. And while the Intoxication and Service Offering <br />Policy does not overtly single out unhoused community members, <br />comments by the Mayor and several city council members make clear <br />that the target and underlying goal of this policy is to use law <br />enforcement to forcibly clear public places of visibly unhoused and <br />unsheltered neighbors. In fact, in a malicious and dangerous attempt to <br />justify the policy, the Mayor engaged in unacceptable speech during <br />discussion of agenda item #39 that otherized and denigrated unhoused <br />residents and perpetuated several inflammatory, false, and broad brush <br />stereotypes about them. <br />• The real problem is a dire shortage of housing and services <br />people need to survive and thrive. Santa Ana community members are <br />not refusing housing and services. Santa Ana and California are <br />experiencing a dire shortage of subsidized affordable housing and <br />voluntary community based behavioral and mental health care. This is <br />the real problem. <br />• Santa Ana's waiting list for housing choice vouchers is closed, <br />as are the lists for all other housing authorities in Orange County. <br />These lists remain closed for many years, then open for narrow <br />1 <br />