Angry Chamber of Commerce Man transmogrifies into Corporate Hulk roaring across the Web,“The Unhoused reject attempts to disappear them and claim equal rights!”

On Google's page 8, I stopped counting hundreds of articles covering California's 'Homeless Person's Bill of Rights and Fairness Act' that cleared the State Assembly Judiciary Committee 7 to 2 on Apr. 23, 2013.

A West Coast consortium – Western Regional Advocacy Project, Western Center on Law and Poverty, East Bay Community Law Center, and JERICHO: A Voice For Justice --- co-sponsored AB 5. The Bill's author, Assembly person Tom Ammiano revised California civil rights legislation to protect the poor and unhoused from discrimination by economic status.

On April 22, San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness activists bussed to Sacramento. They joined California and Oregon advocacy groups marching through Streets stirring up buzz about AB 5, then rallied on Capitol steps.

News coverage matched vitriolic reactions. The Bill's call for homeless Californians' equal rights grabbed attention.

FuckFrance.com's NaturalizedTexan snarked: “The bill was introduced by Tom Ammiano (D - duh!) of San Francisco (of course). “Referring to the proliferation of local ordinances cracking down on...sleeping on the sidewalk and crapping in flowerbeds, Ammiano lashed out at what he called 'the criminalization of poor people.'

Homelessness forces the formerly and newly impoverished to accomplish in public spaces the private acts of eating, sitting, and lying down --- 'unsightly' to housed eyes. Western Regional Advocacy Project [WRAP] Exec. Dir. Paul Boden stated AB 5 encourages Californians to view these essential activities of daily living, when performed by citizens without housing, as equally necessary and lawful as those same life-sustaining acts they take for granted within four walls.

As the economic crisis, foreclosures and job losses plunge Americans into ever-deepening poverty --- exacerbated by defunding of affordable housing since 1983 --- middle class Americans join unhoused neighbors on the streets, possibly accounting for the growing demand for homeless equal rights. Said Fago from Occupy Sacramento, “I'm getting tired of the criminalization of...everyday people who hit a hard spot in their life.”

Ibrahim Mubarak of Portland's 'Right 2 Survive, Right 2 Dream Too' asserted, “Evictions and foreclosures can cause anybody to be homeless. It's not what they're doing to themselves. It's what the government is doing?”

In June 2012, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee signed into law S-2052, the first Homeless Bill of Rights. Vermont. Connecticut and Missouri are following. Courtney from Portland's 'Sisters Of The Road' reported, “WRAP is helping us write our homeless Bill of Rights which we are hoping to submit next year.” Boden foresees a nationwide effort.

Legislation in California jurisdictions like San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles criminalizes public panhandling and sitting, lying or sleeping. Business Improvement Districts – BIDs – hire security to move sleepers from doorways. Because, in some areas, feeding homeless people is illegal, AB 5 “forbids law enforcement from enforcing laws that prohibit public serving of food.”

Breitbart News [Thought he was dead] whined California Assembly person Tom Ammiano offended public sensibility by “guaranteeing [homeless people] the right to 'access public property, possess personal property, access public restrooms, clean water...health care, confidentiality of medical records, assistance of legal counsel.'”

Undead Breitbart bellyaches the Bill prevents police arresting “vagrants.”

Mike in the baggy Eddie Bauer sweatshirt told the Sacramento assemblage he'd been homeless eight years in Fresno, San Francisco and Los Angeles. “The hardest part of being homeless is you have to do without the necessities of food, clothing, shelter, and water." Could Breitbart's clone survive without three squares, shower, and bed?

The bill gives homeless people the right, to “move freely” and “rest and sleep in public spaces" without police or BID agents' harassment or discrimination.

Another key focus is stopping “criminalization cost time --- jail time, court time, police time,” said Boden.

Local laws require police to fritter hours ticketing and jailing the unhoused. Costly Court time is wasted issuing bench warrants.

Boden's sure the Bill will save money. It “will free up staff time for police departments to 'protect and serve' [as] they're supposed to.” “We won't be spending all this time on petty stuff” like 'that Dude that spent 30 days in jail recently for sitting on the sidewalk in [San Francisco's] Tenderloin.”

One expense will be creating 24-hour neighborhood hygiene centers with bathrooms and showers where people can stay clean, rested and healthy. San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness organizer Lisa Marie Alatorre asserts these centers “are just one tiny step that moves us towards improving public health by setting a standard of care” for the whole community.

Another cost will be the law enforcement agency mandate to report to the Attorney General annual data on enforcement of local ordinances against homeless persons to guard against discriminatory implementation.

On May 8, AB 5 comes before the Appropriations Committee. Later, the full Assembly will vote. Alatorre speculates the Bill may be in 'Suspense' for a year while the Finance Committee analyzes costs, and negotiations are conducted with law enforcement and commercial-corporate opposition whose shills shriek on the web.

As AB 5 progresses, Boden sees intensifying resistance. Writes Breitbart, “The California Chamber of Commerce, (you know, people that actually work for a living) immediately labeled the bill a 'job killer.'” The Apartment Association of California joins 49 opposing entities along with The League of California Cities.

Ninety organizations support the Bill.

Declared Ibrahim Mubarak, “This is not a city or statewide thing. This is nationwide. Every homeless person is tired of being harassed, woke up, and criminalized! They need to step up for their rights --- Now!”