Fall River City Council makes homeless encampments illegal

The Fall River City Council voted last Tuesday night to ban unauthorized camping on public property, banning homeless encampments and imposing fines on those living outdoors.

The ordinance, which the council passed 6-1, prohibits any person from camping or leaving camping equipment on public property without prior permission and allows police to dispose of camping equipment and personal property.

The order also prohibits a person from lying or sleeping on a public road, sidewalk, bicycle path or public road or from urinating or defecating in a public space.

Anyone violating the order is subject to a fine, unless the person is homeless, no shelter bed is available, and the person is willing to go to a shelter immediately if space is available. frees itself.

The new law comes months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that local governments can ban homeless people from sleeping outdoors in public places.

Fall River’s ordinance states that camping on public property without access to water, sewer and sanitation services interferes with the intended function of the public space.

The order states that it “is necessary to preserve the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”

Many people spoke against the ordinance at Tuesday’s council meeting, saying it would not solve the problem.

Christopher Conlan, who was homeless for more than two years, said the order would only “plunge people into fear.”

Conlan said many of these people are sick, suffering or have been through difficult times. By deporting them, they will feel even more unsafe, he said.

Instead, Conlan said, the city should show them compassion and work on solutions to find safe environments for people experiencing homelessness.

“Everyone is someone’s someone, and everyone deserves to feel like they’re worth it,” he said.

The Rev. Jamie Spriggs, pastor of First Baptist Church of Fall River, noted that cold weather is fast approaching.

“If you pass this ordinance at the end of September, when the weather is going to get colder, people are going to die,” she said.

Spriggs said this ordinance won’t help people, but affordable housing will.

“Let’s put this order aside and work together to help them,” she said.

Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux said the new order would result in “more inmates in my jail.”

Héroux said during the public speaking engagement that the ordinance makes no sense if the city does not collect fines from violators. However, if Fall River uses the court system to collect the fines and people still can’t pay, they could face contempt of court and jail time.

“We’re taking in people who were previously homeless and had a lot of trouble finding employment, housing, health care, and now you’ve added a criminal record to them because they were convicted of violating a court in order to pay the fines imposed by this order,” declared Héroux.

All this, he said, “I don’t want to see.”

However, Councilor Brad Kilby said fines are needed to give teeth to the law.

“We’re trying to help these human beings,” Kilby said during the hearing. “That’s the lost message. We must do something. We must act.

Kilby said a regional approach is needed to solve the problem. He said the council could revisit it if it caused problems in the future.

“The ordinance is not like the Ten Commandments carved in stone,” he said. “We can come back… Let’s put this in the books.” People were waiting.

Other council members mentioned that homeless encampments pose problems for their neighbors, such as fires, people sleeping on doors and unsafe environments.

Councilwoman Laura-Jean Sampson, who was the only vote against the ordinance, disagreed.

“We don’t have an overflow shelter yet,” she said. “So we are going to move these camps. We have nowhere to put these people. They are going to camp elsewhere.

The ordinance must now be signed by Mayor Paul Coogan.

Coogan can veto the order, but he told the Herald News, “I can count too. It was six to one.

“I don’t know if there’s a way to fine people or arrest people or do anything like that that will end homelessness,” he said.