Scores of Salt Lake City residents say they fear a new camping ordinance under review at City Hall threatens to turn regular people who are down on their luck into potential criminals.
More than 70 people spoke out before the City Council late Tuesday in hours of testimony largely against the draft rules, with many of them voicing worries over a provision that would add sleeping overnight in RVs or cars to the city’s definition of illegal encampments subject to police enforcement.
“It is not only cruel,” said longtime Rose Park resident Alicia Baker, adding that Utah’s capital seemed poised to criminalize homelessness with the ordinance. “It is unconstitutional to pass laws that target, harass and make achieving stability impossible for people living in vehicular homes.”
Many of those likely to be affected should the ordinance pass, resident after resident said, are people already struggling economically, leaving them more vulnerable to homelessness should they face misdemeanor charges for illegally sleeping in a vehicle.
But several frustrated neighbors faced with persistent camps near their homes spoke as well, urging the city to adopt new rules to give police more effective ways for clearing chronic campers who may exhibit criminal behavior or make surrounding neighborhoods unsafe.
“Camping is not always safe for people experiencing homelessness,” said Amy J. Hawkins, chair of the Ballpark Community Council. “We need some tools to help.”
Getting ‘radically creative’ on homelessness
Unveiled in mid-April, the overhaul to the city’s decades-old camping ordinance is considered a key piece of Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s public safety plan, launched 16 months ago. Among the new ordinance’s aims, according to the mayor’s staff, is to widen enforcement from what has largely been focused on city parks to include other public spaces.
Reacting to Tuesday’s outpouring of public concern, several council members said they would seek revisions to the draft rules as they advance at City Hall.
Victoria Petro, who represents the west side’s District 1, warned against creating a new law with possible criminal penalties due solely to a person’s status of being on the verge of homelessness.
“I don’t believe we can create a law that forces people into a position where they can’t comply with that law,” Petro told residents at Tuesday’s meeting as she praised them for their input.
Petro added the council would need “to find creative solutions in a moment that calls for us to be radically creative.”
Higher wages, more affordable living
As now written, along with people sleeping or camping outdoors in Utah’s capital, the ordinance would be widened to also apply to folks bedding down in any kind of vehicle — including RVs and campers — located on public property that is closed for public use between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
In addition to city parks, the new rules would cover park strips, sidewalks, streets and other public spaces, with exceptions for short-term camping along parade routes, when a government property owner grants permission or when the mayor might declare a special emergency.
The council had tentatively set May 19 for a formal vote on the changes, but it’s unclear if that will be delayed now in light of Tuesday’s input.
Over nearly three hours, council members heard of the myriad ways residents faced with financial emergencies, health crises and soaring housing costs had been forced into living out of their vehicles while they worked, in hopes of getting back on their feet.
“They are doing the best that they can with the tools they have to survive,” said April Harper, a resident who lived in her car while her daughter underwent cancer treatment.
“Before you pass this punitive law,” Harper said, “consider helping your struggling constituents by raising wages to a living wage and stopping the bleed on social programs. Make affordable housing actually affordable.”
‘What do I do?’
There were repeated calls Tuesday for the city to provide camping alternatives for those who might be caught up in new enforcement.
“If they can’t camp in the camper,” said homeless advocate Bernie Hart, “they’re going to move to the street — and you’re going to have to hire more police.”
The council also took testimony from several long-haul truck drivers, contractors commuting to and from Utah and social night owls who said they rely on sleeping in their vehicles as part of their regular schedules.
“I’m one of the ones on the street that you want to criminalize,” said unemployed freight hauler Mike Rogers, who added he’s been left broke by the costs of a recent heart attack.
“I’m still in my truck,” Roger said, “and if you make me a criminal for sleeping in my own vehicle trying to survive, what do I do?”
State missing on ‘partnerships,’ Petro says
Members of Mendenhall’s staff and a spokesperson for the Salt Lake City Police Department have said the new camping ordinance, if adopted, would only add tools for police as they seek to connect with the city’s unsheltered residents and guide them to social services.
Existing camping rules have been unevenly applied over the years, according to Andrew Johnston, the city’s director of homeless policy and outreach. Vehicle camping has mostly been covered by a 48-hour parking rule, he said, leading to ineffective enforcement.
Petro said Tuesday that the city’s 27-point public-safety plan had been originally written under the assumption state leaders would be active partners, not least in providing a host of additional services and financial support needed to address the problems it sought to improve, such as vagrancy and heightened drug activity on city streets.
But leaders on Capitol Hill have not followed through, she said, leaving city officials facing criticism for problems beyond their legal purview.
“We do not have a state right now,” Petro said, “that is pushing forward on human-centered solutions.”
Council member Chris Wharton, who represents District 3 centered on the Avenues, added that the draft ordinance was likely to be changed to spare enforcement against “people who want to comply but are not able to comply.”
But Wharton also said some new approach was needed. Some people, he noted, have been flagged by police for using legal loopholes on camping to exploit the vulnerable and “make life even worse for them, either through drugs or trafficking, or through sex work.”
“Police are telling us they are not able to reach [them] and to help” Wharton said, arguing for nuanced changes to the camping rules. “That just means that now we have our work cut out for us.”
Tony covers growth and development issues for The Tribune. He is a former editor and politics reporter and has been with The Tribune since 1991.