MISSOULA — The Missoula City Council Monday night approved changes to its law restricting camping on city property, including banning camping in all parks and changing violations from a civil infraction to a misdemeanor.
After nearly six hours of discussion and public comment, the council approved the proposal, discussed in October, with several amendments in a 9-3 vote. Council Members Daniel Carlino, Kristen Jordan and Jennifer Savage were opposed.
Jordan said the rules are hard for people to follow and unsheltered people need a place to go where they can get services.
“It’s super counterproductive to give people criminal charges, tow people’s vehicles, and hold their vehicle/home until they have enough money to get it back from the city,” Carlino said. “I think that’s all very counterproductive and is going to keep people experiencing homelessness for a longer period of time than if we didn’t do those things. … With our limited resources, we should try to put more of it towards real solutions and not waste so much money making peoples’ lives incredibly hard who are already struggling so much in our community.”
Savage said while she reluctantly voted for the rules back in June, she couldn’t support the ordinance again without a designated place for unsheltered people to go.
“Banning sheltering in parks will not eliminate houseless folks from sheltering outside, nor will it solve the homelessness crisis. It will only push those sheltering outside to places of least resistance, like Franklin to the Fort, the river corridor and the Northside, Westside neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are traditionally low-income and are already dealing with concentrated poverty and the issues that come with it.”
The proposal’s sponsors — Council Members Sandra Vasecka, Bob Campbell, Amber Sherrill, Mike Nugent, Gwen Jones and Stacie Anderson — said that while the ordinance is not a solution to the city’s homelessness, it’s necessary to address problems and concerns brought by the public and provide more “enforcement tools” to hold the small number of people breaking the rules accountable.
“I believe most people living unsheltered want to understand and follow the rules we’ve set out,” Sherrill said. “Unfortunately, in every population of housed or unhoused there are people who refuse to do so, which is why we need the additional enforcement tools that this amendment adds. This ordinance with and without these amendments is a mitigation effort. It does not solve the problem of housing costs, the lack of mental health care, the lack of addictive services, the vacancy rate or the opioid crisis. It does not solve homelessness.”
The current law, which took effect July 25, sets buffer zones where people are not allowed to camp. Until the updated rules take effect Jan. 1, individuals can camp in most city parks, but camping is banned within conservation lands, as well as in nine listed parks. Where camping is allowed, tents must be taken down from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day.
The rules establish a vehicle-camping permit system allowing someone living in their vehicle to stay parked in certain areas for up to 90 days before needing to move to a different street.
“This ordinance with and without these amendments is a mitigation effort. It does not solve the problem of housing costs, the lack of mental health care, the lack of addictive services, the vacancy rate or the opioid crisis. It does not solve homelessness.”
Council Member Amber Sherrill
City officials must refer individuals to a shelter or other temporary housing and provide information about services before enforcing the rules. A first violation gets a written warning with suggested remedies. Subsequent violations may be enforced as a municipal infraction, which is not a criminal charge. Missoula has been seeking a $50 fine, City Attorney Ryan Sudbury said previously.
Implementing the rules is complicated and ongoing, said Dale Bickell, the city’s chief administrative officer. Staff turnover has slowed efforts, and the municipal infraction process is proving difficult, he said.
The city is close to rolling out day-use lockers at the library for unsheltered people to use, Bickell said. The vehicle permitting program is now underway, with 16 permits approved and 15 under consideration, said Eran Pehan, director of the city’s Community Planning, Development and Innovation Department.
The changes make a violation of the rules a misdemeanor instead of a civil infraction, simplifying the process, Bickell said. The misdemeanor could come with a $50 fine but jail time is not authorized. The updated rules remove the requirements for a written warning before a citation and for those enforcing the rules to inquire about a caseworker or other service providers and attempt to contact them.
Police Chief Michael Colyer told the council that asking people about their case worker can become confrontational. Officers will continue trying to connect people to services, but it’s been difficult in every situation, he said. The written warning has been burdensome for officers as an additional requirement to track and document prior to issuing a citation, Colyer said.
The changes add language to clarify that while unsheltered people may camp on city property, that only includes areas open for public use. That could include areas along trails outside the buffer zone, city right-of-way and empty city parking lots or other property, Bickell said. The amendment also allows updates to closure areas on the city’s urban camping webpage, rather than only by posting signs.
The updated rules include language to make it clear that the city is willing to provide city land for a service provider willing to operate a designated camping facility, Sudbury said.
The amendment removes the section of law directing the mayor to develop a program to support urban camping, which is a policy statement not typically included in city code, Sudbury said. A resolution passed earlier this year includes similar language, and work on a resource guide and exploring a designated camping site is ongoing, Bickell said.
Several changes suggested by staff in the last month were included as amendments to the proposal.
Staff recommended changes to the vehicle permitting program, including removing the allowance for unpermitted vehicles to park on a public street for 120 hours; allowing vehicles to park closer together and removing the requirement for the city to tow a vehicle with an expired permit to an eligible location. Sudbury said the changes encourage people to get a permit and allow for the “social safety” of parking nearby each other.
The changes also replace the option for a deferred prosecution agreement with a deferred imposition of sentence, which would allow the judge to dismiss someone’s first citation if they have no other offense after six months. Sudbury said the new option is less complicated and doesn’t come with a $100 fee like a deferred prosecution agreement.
The new rules allow seven days before posting a new notice for a rescheduled cleanup instead of two to reflect the city’s current cleanup schedule and adjust the buffer around rivers to be 50 feet from the high-water mark instead of the water’s edge to protect waterways and align with other regulations.
On Monday, the sponsors of the proposed changes added an amendment extending the hours when people are allowed to camp in eligible areas from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. from Nov. 1 to March 1.
Council Members Mirtha Becerra, Sierra Farmer and Jennifer Savage proposed an amendment to add reworked language from the removed section directing the mayor to develop a program to support urban camping. Their proposal states the city will help coordinate supportive programs with service providers, work to provide storage spaces, trash collection and bathrooms, and distribute a resource guide.
The amendment was approved in a 9-3 vote, with Anderson, Campbell and Vasecka opposed.
Those three members also proposed changing the section directing the mayor to investigate designated camping sites to say the city may permit sites, which was approved unanimously. A group of nonprofits and service providers are looking into creating a designated campsite, Mayor Andrea Davis said in October.
Council Member Daniel Carlino proposed several amendments, including not allowing enforcement of citation or abatement if no shelter beds are available; removing the requirement that people pay cleanup costs before getting their towed vehicle returned; removing language allowing a misdemeanor charge and keeping requirements for officials to issue a written warning and inquire about a caseworker.
All of Carlino’s amendments failed, with some garnering support from Jordan and Savage.
Members of the public filled most seats in the council chamber, and more than 30 people commented on the proposed changes.
RELATED
Bozeman starts relocating urban campers in wake of new law
The Bozeman City Commission passed Ordinance 2172 on Oct. 22, which requires people to obtain $25 monthly permits for urban camping. The city can deny permits, criminally enforce violations and close “high-conflict areas” to camping. Next October, camping in the public right-of-way will be banned in Bozeman entirely.
Those in support of the ban on camping in parks included a handful of residents who live near McLeod Park, north of the Southgate Mall, where unsheltered people have been consistently camping since the rules took effect.
“The people are not camping eight to eight, they live there,” said Lori Wheeler, a neighborhood resident. “And I feel compassion for that as far as not having a home, not having a place to live. But I don’t feel like a public park where children play is the place to do that, especially because of the safety of the kids playing and the fact that there are no bathrooms there.”
Several commenters opposed to the restrictions said unhoused people don’t go to the shelters for several reasons and need a designated place to camp.
Liam Seymour said he works at the Poverello Center but doesn’t speak on behalf of the shelter, which is often at capacity. Criminalizing people into going to the shelter isn’t housing people, he said.
Resident Julie Sanders said she was disappointed in the ordinance and that resources have not been provided.
“Our unhoused neighbors are our community members, and I don’t get why people are not willing to treat people with the same respect as you do a homeowner. I don’t understand it. We’re all close to potentially being unhoused because it is getting so inaccessible to live in Missoula.”
Multiple people in support and in opposition to the restrictions said Missoula needs more resources, including housing, mental health and addiction treatment options, to adequately tackle the problem.
Several council members emphasized the need for state and federal funding for homeless programs.
“Folks need to talk to their legislators,” Jones said. “We have a session coming up this spring. There’s a billion-dollar surplus, plus. If we had more resources, our providers and nonprofits in Missoula, with collaborating and communicating with the city, could be doing more. That’s where most folks on all sides of this spectrum would like to see this going — not having folks on the street, providing more services.”
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