SAN DIEGO — Della Infante limps out of her tent, one of six tents lined up along Sports Arena Boulevard in San Diego's Midway District. Infante, 59 years old, says police officers shut the police cruiser door on her right leg during an April 15 arrest.
Infante has been arrested an estimated 16 times in four years, according to her attorney, Coleen Cusack, though Infante says it feels as if it's closer to 300 arrests.
Infante, a slight woman barely over five feet tall, is known as 'Mama' at the Midway District encampment. She says she and others are sick of "being treated like meat" by the officers who are tasked with addressing what in recent years appears to be an arduous task of reducing homelessness on San Diego city streets and sidewalks.
Infante's April 15th arrest happened just days after a city council committee voted to move forward with a vote on a proposal making it unlawful for any person to camp in or upon any public property if shelter beds are available.
As for her most recent arrest, Infante says police took her in on an old warrant and for resisting.
"It was for resisting arrest and warrants that I didn't have. I have a warrant in LA for over 20 years ago, a misdemeanor count. All I did was grab the tarp and they said I was resisting," said Infante.
When police grabbed her, Infante says she started throwing her arms around.
For Infante, that meant another trip to Las Colinas. Luckily this time she didn't have to walk. "It's a long walk," she said.
Infante, as well as other unsheltered people, may soon be faced with more potential arrests if the city council and mayor approve a law to ban encampments in city parks, near schools as well as on all sidewalks if they refuse going into a shelter if beds are available.
The proposal has drawn criticism from some advocates and others for what they say is criminalizing homelessness.
"The idea that we're going to hand an unsheltered person a ticket or arrest them and that's going to magically end their homelessness is a falsehood. These people are typically just booked and released. Even if they're convicted, they have no other alternatives but to live on the street. So all these citations and arrests are doing is complicating their ability to end their homelessness," said attorney Cusack.
But for City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, the councilmember that introduced the ordinance, the encampment ban is a needed first step in a multi-step plan to not only address homelessness but also to ensure that streets and sidewalks are safe, a place where pedestrians can walk without having to dodge tents, trash, and people fast asleep on the pavement.
"The idea is to ensure that people who are currently experiencing unsheltered homelessness, find a way to get into a shelter, a safer, healthier place, and also to create a more healthy and safe environment for our neighborhoods," Councilmember Whitburn told CBS 8.
Whitburn says that means safety for everyone, not only the unsheltered.
"We have young school children who are walking to classes on a sidewalk, who find themselves blocked by an encampment who have to walk out into the street into traffic to get around the encampment or go on to school. We have people in wheelchairs, who have every right to expect that they can get from point A to point B on a sidewalk and they can't because there are tents blocking the sidewalk. That's not right, either. We have a right to have a city that is safe, that is healthy, and where people abide by basic simple rules. And that is what this ordinance will do."
But with shelter space at less than 1,800 beds and more than 4,801 people on the streets - that number likely much higher, Whitburn says the city must continue to create more safe shelters for the unhoused.
"There is no question that we need more shelter," says Whitburn. "It's why I am working toward a safe sleeping initiative where we would take a parking lot and screen it off for privacy and put bathrooms, security, and provide opportunities for people to move from the street and into those safe sleeping locations. So we absolutely need to create more shelter opportunities. And we would not enforce in most instances unless a person was offered and available shelter bed."
Yet, according to data obtained by CBS 8, arrests of unsheltered people has climbed since the end of the pandemic when Mayor Todd Gloria ordered increased enforcement for encroachment and illegal lodging, the main infractions for those experiencing homelessness.
But according to Infante, it's more than just an effort to clear sidewalks and streets for children and those in wheelchairs. For Infante, it's personal.
"Encroachment means for trash. I don't know why I'm their target, I just am. Maybe because I'm here helping everybody," says Infante.
When asked when she thinks the next arrest will come, Infante doesn't miss a beat. "Probably tomorrow," she says emphatically.
Attorney Coleen Cusack represents Infante and other unsheltered people in San Diego who have been arrested and cited for homeless-related offenses.
Cusack blasted the proposed encampment ban, stating the ban will only exacerbate the homeless crisis, not help solve it.
"The idea that we're going to hand an unsheltered person a ticket or an arrest, and that's going to magically end their homelessness is is a falsehood. So the individuals are booked and released, even if they're convicted, they have no other alternative but to live on the street. So all these citations and arrests are doing are complicating their ability to end their homelessness, because now they have all these court cases they have to attend," said Cusack outside of Infante's tent on Sports Arena Drive.
Cusack says the city is "basically setting up a poverty-apartheid in San Diego where people who are poor are not even allowed in some areas of the city without being subjected to arrest."
Councilmember Whitburn suggests otherwise.
"It is really important that a city like San Diego have rules that protect public health and protect public safety. And the goal of having rules for health and safety is not to arrest people. It's to ensure that we have the kind of city that we all want to have that is healthy and safe for everybody."
Added Whitburn, "If people, despite having opportunities to go into shelter or safe sleeping or housing, decide that they want to stay on the sidewalk, then it is perfectly reasonable for us to say you can't do that."
The ordinance is expected to go before a full city council vote sometime in May. If approved the Mayor will need to sign off on it before it goes into law. Councilmember Whitburn's Office estimates that to be sometime in the beginning of summer.