Sparks City Council had a busy day Monday. They finally approved a settlement with former Fire Chief Mark Lawson for $381,000, and they also voted unanimously to prohibit people living in oversized vehicles from parking on public property.
This decision had actually already been approved last August, but due to some law changes and confusion they had to bring it back to Monday's meeting to clarify some things.
"Because there was a state law change that made traffic from a criminal to civil, in our municipal code, things that were found under Title 10, unless it was specifically laid out that it was a criminal misdemeanor was a civil infraction," said Wes Duncan, City of Sparks Attorney.
Before the decision was made, lots public commenters were strongly advising the council to not approve the criminalization. Claiming that if they do so, then they're just punishing people for being homeless.
Various commenters said:
"This is a transparent attempt to criminalize people for being unhoused."
"The council is choosing to punish and marginalize the most vulnerable members of the community. This ordinance is not only heartless but it I also ineffective of addressing the issues of houselessness."
"They are people who have been laid off, suffered a medical expense, fled an abusive situation, received no cause evictions, the list of unfortunate circumstances is endless. To punish these people is not to condemn a criminal act or any wrongdoing, it is to punish them for being poor and trying to survive."
However Acting City Manager Chris Crawford and City Attorney Wes Duncan argue that this ordinance is needed to prevent public health and safety from being put at risk.
"We are trying to first and foremost connect to people to services always, and we don't want to see anybody homeless, but these ordinances are necessary to protect the public health and public safety," Duncan said.
Crawford said that people living in vehicles are dumping waste into the river and streets causing health hazards.
"Those facilities are falling onto our streets meaning the black water and grey water from these RVs are draining directly onto our streets which if you look at it drains directly into the river," Crawford said. "There is no stop, there is no treatment center, they go directly into those."
"We had 120 warming fires some of which actually caught some people's homes on fire so there's an impact to public health and public safety, or hypodermic needles in the river or blocking sidewalks that allow people to have to go into traffic and to avoid people that were blocking sidewalks," Duncan added.
He said that the issue isn't people being homeless, it's that they repeatedly refuse getting help.
In the last three years, the Homeless Outreach Proactive Engagement team, also known as the HOPE team, has helped more than 500 homeless people connect with services that can help them. However, they are still facing issues with lots of people living in vehicles resisting the help, and it's affecting other community members.
One woman shared during public comment: "My neighbors and I are impacted by those individuals who just flat our refuse to take any help from HOPE. Our police officers are run ragged, our fire and response are run ragged having to respond to these individuals over and over and over again."
Another man said he has experience trying to help the homeless but had little success: "Trying to work with 15 only 2 were meaning able to get help with services."
This is why the HOPE team has requested that the city clarify if it would be criminal in nature in order to help connect with the homeless easier.
"If there's a resistance to services and it's impacting public health or public safety that's where law enforcement is getting involved," Duncan said.
The city council wants to clarify that people living in their vehicles will always be offered services and help first however from now on if they continue to reject it and are impacting the public health and safety, they will receive a misdemeanor.
