“Urban camping” will remain legal downtown and in other public spaces in Athens

Urban camping will remain legal in Athens after dozens of residents packed city hall to defeat a measure that would have prohibited sleeping, cooking or using a tent in public spaces for purposes of living accommodations.

Homeless service providers, advocates and people with current or past experience being unhoused spoke in opposition to the measure for nearly two and a half hours. The proposal was intended to prevent people experiencing homelessness from blocking the doorways of local businesses, especially in the downtown area, but advocates say it would have had negative consequences for both the unhoused and for Athens as a whole.  

“‘Move along’ orders are inhumane, extremely expensive and more importantly, do not work,” Michael Bien, the executive director of the Athens Homeless Coalition told ACC Commissioners. “People either return to where they were, or they relocate … This doesn’t solve the underlying problem, it shifts it, and each shift makes the person harder to reach.”

Bien co-authored a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which found that continued forced relocation such as proposed with the urban camping ban can increase the rate of drug overdose and hospitalization among the unhoused. It can even cause premature death. 

Several politicians and elected officials spoke against the camping ban, including former mayoral candidate Tim Denson, who works with the unhoused as the discharge coordinator for Advantage Behavioral Health Systems’ Behavioral Health Crisis Center. In his remarks, Denson mentioned the cost that taxpayers would incur if the ban was implemented.

“If you arrest a person who is homeless, they are still homeless. But now they have legal charges, fines to pay [and] a court date,” Denson said. “Housing them in our jail will cost all of us taxpayers hundreds of dollars per person.”

The ordinance under consideration requires that police give a warning before issuing a citation, which would not result in an immediate arrest in any case. However, ACC Manager Robert Cowell admitted that unpaid citations could eventually result in a warrant for a person’s arrest.

Former mayoral candidate LaKeisha Gantt also spoke out against the ban, as did current state house candidate Suzanna Karatassos and state senate candidate Ray Smith. 

In addition to politicians and service providers, about a dozen people with personal experience being unhoused attended the meeting to speak out against the ban.

“[This proposal] has bothered a lot of people that are on the streets. We have fear that the police are going to be coming by sweeping people up to take them off to jail,” said Thomas Sosby, who is currently without a home.

While the vast majority of speakers during public comment opposed the camping ban, a few did express their support for the proposal. Michael Ruppersburg, an attorney who works in downtown Athens, spoke to a number of unpleasant encounters that he and his colleagues have had to continually endure.

“For those of us that work downtown or are downtown on a regular basis, we encounter feces and urine … we see people with mental illness and substance abuse yelling at and accosting us,” Ruppersburg said. “It is quickly turning downtown into a place that is not welcome for the entire community.”

Commissioners tried to address this aspect of the homelessness problem in January by passing an ordinance making it clear that people are not allowed to obstruct sidewalks or public rights-of-way. However, this ordinance “did not fully address all instances of right-of-way interference,” according to ACC staff. The current proposal would have addressed these remaining instances through a blanket ban on all camping in public spaces across Athens. According to the ACC Attorney’s office, similar code language is already in use in cities across Georgia, including in Rome, Savannah and Atlanta.

Commissioners debate

Some commissioners, including Commissioner Dexter Fisher, expressed support for the camping ban despite the large number of public comments in opposition.

“For our business owners downtown, we owe them something,” Fisher said. “Would we want the same type of camping going on in our own [neighborhoods]? The answer is probably no because you’d end up calling the police. Why should we expect our business owners to accept [it]?”

Furthermore, Fisher expressed optimism that the problem of homelessness could be solved if Athens’ service providers would only work together more effectively.

“Too many people [are] working in silos,” Fisher said in criticism of the service providers in the audience. “Why can’t we work together to solve some of these issues? That is not going on and that’s the truth. Those things are not happening. If we really want to do good by our homeless population, let’s work together to help solve some of these issues.”

There is a shortage of both shelter beds and longer-term transitional housing in Athens. Until this changes, the homelessness problem will likely continue, regardless of how effectively local service providers operate.

Commissioner Melissa Link originally suggested tabling the camping ban until ACC staff develop a plan to build a new low-barrier day shelter, but quickly changed her mind and motioned to deny the proposal outright.

“It’s useless to pass an ordinance like this when people literally have nowhere to go,” Link said.

Commissioner Stephanie Johnson agreed, saying the ordinance was “inhumane.”

The camping ban failed in a 6-4 vote, with Commissioners Allison Wright, John Culpepper and Mike Hamby voting along with Fisher to support the proposal.

Commissioners also passed a resolution to affirm “Athens-Clarke County’s commitment to advancing coordinated, evidence-based solutions to prevent and reduce homelessness.” You can read the resolution here.

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