The city of Lompoc is still working to iron out an agreement with a local organization that wants to continue cleaning waste out of homeless camps in the Santa Ynez Riverbed but recently faced costly fees for doing so. Now the nonprofit status of the organization is in question.
Planting-A-Seed is a self-described Lompoc-based nonprofit that offers various services to those experiencing homelessness. The organization has hosted several “riverbed cleanup” events since at least March, an effort to identify abandoned homeless camps in the Santa Ynez Riverbed and remove the trash, hazardous waste, and supplies left behind.
After a particularly heavily attended cleanup event on April 10, Planting-A-Seed wrote on its Facebook page that volunteers had collected roughly 26 tons of waste from the riverbed, which the organization said cost $2,179.54 to leave at Lompoc’s landfill. Despite the city’s willingness to waive similar fees for the organization at least once before, Lompoc denied the nonprofit’s request to continually waive fees associated with such events, including the April 10 cleanup.
“Instead of trying to work with us and find a way to assist,” Planting-A-Seed wrote on its Facebook page on April 11, “the city of Lompoc told the public that we can no longer go on public land and clean.”
Community members are broadly showing support online for Planting-A-Seed and its cleanup efforts, thanking volunteers by the dozens on Facebook, promising to donate money to the organization, and calling the city’s response “ludicrous” and “ridiculous.”
To appease community concerns, the city released an April 8 letter to Planting-A-Seed from Lompoc City Manager Jim Throop, in which Throop explained that while the organization’s efforts were much appreciated, the cleanups could easily become a liability issue for the city.
Throop requested that Planting-A-Seed sign an agreement with the city spelling out specific regulations that volunteers would need to abide by while working on city property and making contact with those living in the riverbed. The agreement would also protect the city from any possible legal threats associated with the events, and Planting-A-Seed would be required to obtain liability insurance of at least $2 million.
“To avoid what could be significant negative consequences to the city’s limited financial resources,” Throop wrote in the letter, “please be advised, unless you and your volunteers comply with the requirements set out in this letter, you and they do not have permission to enter any city property for any cleanup event.”
In the letter, which was addressed specifically to Planting-A-Seed’s Executive Director, Shawndel Malcolm, Throop repeatedly insinuated that Planting-A-Seed might not be a “legally recognized organization.”
Planting-A-Seed did not show up among any of Lompoc’s tax exempt organizations on the IRS website, which lists all organizations with nonprofit status. A California Secretary of State business search shows that Planting-A-Seed is currently under a Secretary of State and Franchise Tax Board suspension, meaning it has temporarily lost its privilege to do business in California. Such suspensions, according to information provided on the Franchise Tax Board website, occur when a business fails to file a tax return, files information incorrectly, or fails to pay taxes, penalties, fees, or interest.
The Sun discovered this information just before press time, and Malcolm could not be reached for comment.
The Santa Ynez Riverbed poses a longstanding issue for the city of Lompoc. Homeless camps are common there, and the waste associated with the camps is often hazardous, consisting of people’s belongings, human waste, and sometimes used syringes.
In 2018, the city spent roughly half a million dollars and nearly a year of planning to clear the riverbed of people and trash due to concerns over the safety of the city’s water system and other environmental issues. Through that project, Lompoc hired a professional cleaning company to handle the hazardous waste, spent months contacting those living in the riverbed and connecting them with services, and launched a temporary triage center for the displaced.
Lompoc Mayor Jenelle Osborne said the process was complicated and involved a lot of time, money, and legal know-how.
Although people aren’t allowed to live in the riverbed, Osborne said homeless individuals have rights. She worries that if the general public or volunteers associated with an organization like Planting-A-Seed aren’t aware of those rights, they might illegally dispose of a homeless person’s belongings during a cleanup event, putting the organization, city, and homeless at risk.
Different parts of the riverbed are also owned by different individuals and jurisdictions—some parts are city-owned, some parts are privately owned, and others are owned by the county or federal government—and volunteers aren’t allowed on all portions of that property. Even some of the property that is city-owned isn’t really open for public access, she said.
Another pressing concern, Osborne said, is that the trash that volunteers are dealing with is hazardous. If someone were to get sick or injured in the riverbed, the city could face serious repercussions.
“It isn’t necessarily something I like to think about, but we’re responsible for all of our community members,” Osborne said, “and so when you recruit volunteers to go down into an area that could lead to them pricking themselves with a needle and ending up with hepatitis, they may choose to hold you accountable for that. And are you prepared for that?”
City staff recently met with Planting-A-Seed leadership, and Osborne said that if they can come to some kind of agreement, that will be discussed at a future City Council meeting.
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 6, 2021.
