Tom Elliott has come up with solutions for dealing with the homeless who intrude on his gastropub on the Venice boardwalk.

He’s assigned one of his employees the task of shooing away homeless people who reach across a railing and grab food from his customers’ plates. And he calls the police to arrest some of the more aggressive homeless people or escort them away from the premises.

So Elliott, who co-owns the Venice Ale House, was alarmed last week when he learned of a “homeless bill of rights” measure introduced last month in Sacramento that would give the homeless the right to conduct “life-sustaining activities” in public spaces, including in front of businesses.

“I understand that the homeless should have rights, but my customers also have the right to eat undisturbed by the homeless,” he said. “Any legislation that would make it more difficult for us to keep away people and prevent them from harassing our customers would make things very difficult for us.”

Elliott, who chairs a new committee to improve the boardwalk, is not alone in his struggle to deal with the homeless. Many local business and property owners are alarmed by the bill, introduced by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco.

If passed, the bill would prevent cities and business improvement districts from targeting homeless people through law enforcement. It would essentially legalize many activities of homeless people that hurt businesses, such as sleeping on sidewalks in front of stores, panhandling or storing their possessions there.

In his bill, AB 5, Ammiano says that the homeless have been the targets of discrimination, constantly being rousted from one community after another. He compared the treatment of the homeless to Jim Crow segregation policies and laws against “ugly people” in the 19th century, and Chinese Americans and “Okies” in the early 20th century.

Public urination?

The bill would even give homeless people the right to urinate in public places, although some observers bet that provision won’t become law.

In an email to the Business Journal last week, Ammiano noted that parts of his bill were “aspirational” and that he would be introducing amendments in coming weeks.

But that has not assuaged the concerns of business groups, especially business improvement districts in downtown areas and places such as Hollywood. Commercial property and business associations in those areas have spent years working with social service agencies, law enforcement and even the homeless themselves to clean up and revitalize business districts. They fear that if the legislation passes, it could halt the progress that’s been made.

“This bill rolls the clock back, saying that homelessness is here to stay and this is an acceptable condition,” said Kerry Morrison, executive director of the Hollywood Entertainment District, the BID serving central Hollywood. “It would make it more difficult for us to create a safe and vibrant neighborhood that people work in, live in, visit and do business.”

Morrison said her BID has worked hard to coax the homeless to go into shelters or other housing and that this bill could interfere with those efforts.

Similar objections have come from BIDs in downtown Los Angeles and downtown Long Beach.

Estela Lopez, executive director of the Central City East Association and the Industrial Business Improvement District that encompasses Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, said that some level of enforcement against the homeless is absolutely essential for the survival of businesses there. Lopez noted that although there are about 1,200 businesses and 10,000 workers in the BID, that number is way down from historical levels.

“One of the reasons we’ve been bleeding jobs is that this area has become a repository of the social ills of the entire region,” she said. “We have the highest concentration in the nation of formerly incarcerated people and registered sex offenders. We have streets that are so contaminated with urine and feces that workers have to change shoes each morning when they enter their places of work or those places fail their health inspections. That’s the reality our businesses currently face and that’s why we’ve spent so much money and effort on security and maintenance services.”

Lopez said the bill’s prohibition against discriminatory enforcement actions targeting the homeless threatens to halt the BID’s security operations. She also fears that giving the homeless a “bill of rights” would encourage even more people to live on the streets.

“The homeless population ebbs and flows. But when more people come to live on the streets of Skid Row, more of our businesses shut down,” she said.

Instead, Lopez said, more resources are needed for temporary shelter and permanent housing for the homeless.

In the meantime, she said her BID’s board members were so concerned about the bill that they asked her to speak with Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, whose district includes the Skid Row area.

‘Not a welcoming sight’

Meanwhile, in Long Beach, Kraig Kojian, chief executive of Downtown Long Beach Associates, said his members have given him a series of one-word responses upon learning of the bill.

“‘Outrageous’ is what I hear most,” he said.

Kojian, who is also chairman of the California Downtown Association, which consists of downtown-area business groups, said the bill is hostile to business.

“It would be a negative impact on business,” he said. “Already, it’s not a welcoming sight to see people camped out in front of storefronts or condos. People don’t want to step right next to a homeless person on their way into a business.

“This bill would make it worse because it limits the ability of property owners or law enforcement to take action to curb these impacts,” he continued. “This bill goes too far. The homeless don’t need more rights; they need more services and more housing.”

In his email, Ammiano said his bill would not allow homeless to obstruct businesses or their entryways.

“Local laws that prohibited sitting on a sidewalk or lying on a public bench, for example, would remain in force,” he said, but the laws could not be enforced in a discriminatory fashion. “That is, they could not be used only against people who are homeless.”

As for the impact on business, Ammiano said, “The argument that the presence of homeless people deters others from using a business reminds me of arguments that were used 50 years ago to justify keeping different classes of people out of businesses and public spaces.”

But business and property owners who have dealt with the homeless see this differently. They say the bill would not only hurt businesses but the homeless themselves.

“This bill puts us at odds with our homeless neighbors, most of whom want and deserve our help,” said Brian Folb, president of Paramount Contractors & Developers Inc., whose family has built, owned and managed buildings in Hollywood. Folb is also acting chairman of the Sunset & Vine Business Improvement District.

“Facilities are available for the homeless to store their personal belongings and take care of their personal hygiene. It is ridiculous, dangerous and irresponsible to take a position that their civil liberties as U.S. citizens are being compromised and they be given the right to use the public rights of way for their basic personal needs.”

Nearby, Taline Mazlemian, whose family business Paragon Cleaners is at Fountain Avenue and Vine Street, said the bill would make it more difficult to convince the homeless to move into shelters.

Mazlemian said one homeless woman recently decided to sit in front of her business for nearly an hour.

“My customers were scared to walk past her and wouldn’t even get out of their cars,” she said. “I finally called the BID security people to convince her to go to a shelter for a few nights, which was better for her and for our customers.

“This bill lets the homeless put up shop wherever they want. It won’t solve anything.”