Alex Darocy Photography

More than 60 people gathered at Santa Cruz City Hall on August 18 for the latest in a series of community campouts organized to protest local laws that ban sleeping in public. It was the sixth held at City Hall since July, and was attended by approximately twice as many sleepers as the previous campouts. Santa Cruz City Hall Santa Cruz City Hall is closed to the public at night. To sleep in its courtyard is an act of civil disobedience being undertaken by protesters to, in part, pressure the city to open up its parks at night for homeless people to sleep in. Another one of the demands of participants is the repeal of the sleeping/camping ban, which outlaws sleeping in public (with or without setting up bedding) in the City of Santa Cruz between the hours of 11pm and 8:30am, in addition to prohibiting sleeping in cars. The sleepouts are attended by people with houses and people without houses of their own to live in. Some have raised tents on the City Hall lawn, but most us...

On August 11, community members in Santa Cruz held their fifth in a series of sleepouts organized at City Hall to protest local laws that make it illegal for homeless people to sleep in public. Police arrived at midnight and citations were issued to many in the group of demonstrators who were attempting to sleep in the courtyard as an act of civil disobedience. 24-hour stay away orders were issued to at least two of those present, and a journalist who has been documenting the whole series of protests was arrested and taken to jail. After police left, most of the protesters remained and slept on the sidewalk until the next morning. The courtyard area of Santa Cruz City Hall is closed to the public at night, which is one of the issues homeless rights demonstrators have been targeting. Their desire is to see city parks opened at night so that people without homes will have a place to go where they are not targeted by law enforcement. Another focus of the protests has been the loc...