"Homeless Court" : Rules for Fools

"Project Clean Slate Guidelines"

"1. The limit is 10 defendants per calendar regardless of how many cases they have. The process will be that 10 referrals will be forwarded to review. If there are referrals with no cases pending, the clerk (Cindy or Alma) will notify Tracy that there are vacancies.

2. All referrals must go through Tracy. Tracy will fax any request ot calendar an individual to both the Court and to Bob Patterson."

3. The cut-off date will be 2 weeks before the date of the next court session.

4. If a defemdant fails toa ppear at the scheduled hearing or is cited for a new violation, the matter will be taken off calendar for one year.

5. The Court sessions will be the last Tuesday of the month at 1:30 pm at the shelter."


Santa Cruz's token nod in the direction of "homeless courts" is a way of getting the homeless to buy into the removal of their own rights and to acknowledge the legitimacy of their own criminalization. Instead of eliminating discriminatory laws, selective enforcement, useless and cruel police practices, and gentrification-friendly "social cleansing", we have "homeless courts".

Some comments on these "homeless courts" (also called poverty courts or community courts) from the San Francisco Street Sheet, a homeless-written publication put out by the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness:

http://cohsf.org/streetsheet/2007/08/01/the-manhattanization-of-our-civil-rights/
http://cohsf.org/streetsheet/2007/06/01/poverty-courts-easy-answer-no-solution/
http://cohsf.org/streetsheet/2007/04/11/walk-against-poverty-courts/
http://cohsf.org/streetsheet/2007/04/05/poverty-courts/