Gainesville city commissioners postponed a decision on Thursday to move forward with a proposed ordinance that would prohibit camping or sleeping in public areas.
In an almost-packed City Hall auditorium, City Manager Russ Blackburn proposed a draft of an ordinance that would place people sleeping on public right-of-ways like sidewalks, or setting up camp in those same public places, under arrest.
This proposal came into play because city staff believe the available resources at Grace Marketplace should allow the homeless who still live downtown to relocate.
Commissioners emphasized the goal is not to jail people who are camping on public property, but to bring these people to the resources they need.
“There isn’t anyone I see in our city staff that really wants to arrest somebody,” Commissioner Helen Warren said. “The last stop should not be a sidewalk.”
The proposed language and definitions for the ordinance include camp or camping, which involves any sort of temporary shelter or the use of bedding while sleeping in a public place.
Public places include property generally visible to public view or owned by a public entity and open to the public.
But the ordinance might not be drafted for a while because commissioners need more information before they can even proceed to discuss a draft.
Commissioner Lauren Poe said he has no desire to move forward until the legality and constitutionality of such a provision can be determined.
“There is no justice so long as there are people sleeping on our sidewalks,” he said.
Driving the current downtown homeless population to Grace Marketplace would put a burden on the shelter that it is not equipped to handle, he said, and directing more attention to expand services at Grace is where the commission should focus.
Arupa Freeman, who ran Home Van — a service providing resources directly to the homeless — for several years, mirrored his sentiment.
“We have a lot of services, and they look good on paper, but they’re understaffed or underfunded. And we need to pay more money to take care of this problem,” Freeman said. “Nobody wants to sleep on the sidewalk, so my encouragement is to spend money. Help people one-on-one. Get people off the sidewalk.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 - 4 on 3/20/2015 under the headline “City tables sleeping-in-public draft”]
