Effort to change rule hindering efforts to move homeless off public property tabled for a month

Aug. 2—Manchester aldermen have tabled for a month a request from one of their own to eliminate language from a city ordinance he says hinders efforts by local police to remove homeless individuals from public property. The delay will allow them time to review similar regulations in two West Coast cities.

The vote to table came Tuesday night following a lengthy nonpublic session where aldermen huddled with City Solicitor Emily Rice behind closed doors, after about a dozen people spoke both for and against the proposed ordinance change.

Alderman at Large Joe Kelly Levasseur argues Manchester city ordinance 130.13 (A), which prohibits camping on public property without advance written permission, never should have been amended to say police will enforce the prohibition "only when the individual is on public property and there is an available overnight shelter."

"We need to stop handcuffing our police with respect to removing vagrants from public property," Levasseur said. "We never should have added this language to our own ordinance. I am hoping we can now fix this mistake."

Levasseur proposes striking the verbiage "and there is an available overnight shelter" and related language from the ordinance so it simply reads, "The Manchester Police shall enforce this camping section only when the individual is on public property."

About a dozen people addressed the proposal during the public comment portion of Tuesday's Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

Daniel Mowery of Holt Avenue said the Board of Mayor and Aldermen has "wasted so many tax dollars" giving breaks to housing projects in the city.

"And what are we getting? More high rent," Mowery said. People cannot afford to live in the city, this is why we have the homelessness issue. It's not what Manchester can do for you, it's what you can do for Manchester. Aldermen, what most of you can do for us is not run for office, and put some aldermen on this board that can do something about the homeless."

Jodie Brown, a West Side resident and housing advocate, said she was "incredulous" that officials were taking "two steps back" to discuss Levasseur's request.

"This suggestion is doing exactly what its author intended — to turn our attention away from the fact that there are not enough shelter beds nor enough affordable housing in Manchester," said Brown. "This myopic view that poor and or houseless people are not people and deserve to be treated like trash and don't deserve the basic human right of housing is repulsive."

"The attacks and criminalization of poor and or houseless people is old," Brown added. "Find a new strategy. Let's keep moving forward and continue to attack homelessness, not the homeless."

Kathleen Carswell of Amherst Street suggested the city save some of the money it plans to spend on a rebranding effort, and put it towards services.

"I can give you plenty of names," Carswell said. "I can give you 'Little Lawrence.', I can give you 'Crime Central,' 'Richville USA.' I can give you plenty more. The city isn't very safe."

Bryce Kaw-uh, the city's planning board chair and a Ward 1 resident, said he strongly opposes the proposal, calling it "shortsighted, counterproductive and cruel."

"If there is no shelter space available, where would we expect an unhoused person to go?" asked Kaw-uh. "If anything, Alderman Levasseur's proposal is an admission that we don't have enough shelter capacity in the first place. This is the same issue we face when the city sweeps an encampment — if there's no legitimate place for folks to go, then they have no choice but to set up somewhere else, continuing the vicious cycle."

"To be blunt, this is just plain dumb."

Manchester resident Brittany Ping thanked Levasseur for "bringing something new to the table."

"We're coming to you and we're asking for solutions, we're asking for innovations. Love it or hate it, we have something new at the table. It can start a discussion, it can start a dialogue," Ping said. "We can start having these conversations at a more serious and escalated pace, and that is what your constituents have asked for from you for at least two years."

Manchester Police Chief Allen Aldenberg said Sunday he supports the idea behind Levasseur's request.

The city ordinance was amended in 2021 on advice from the city solicitor's office, to help protect the city from lawsuits and in response to a 2018 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Martin v. City of Boise, Levasseur said.

In that ruling, the court determined a city cannot charge someone with a crime or give them a ticket for sleeping in a public space if there's a lack of shelter beds — in effect, if there's nowhere else for them to go.

Levasseur said his proposal has been tabled a month to allow the city solicitor and aldermen to review new camping ordinances in San Diego and Los Angeles he feels are "1000 times stronger than our city ordinance."

San Diego's new ordinance prohibiting homeless encampments in public spaces throughout the city if shelter beds are available took effect July 30.

The ordinance also bans encampments at all times in so-called "sensitive areas" — within two blocks of schools or shelters and at all city parks, waterways, canyons and transit stations — regardless of shelter availability.

In Los Angeles, municipal code 41.18 allows the city to designate specified areas for enforcement to prevent sitting, laying, sleeping, storing, maintaining, placing personal property and otherwise obstructing the public right-of-way.

The law prohibits sitting, sleeping, lying and storing personal property within two feet of any fire hydrant or fire plug; within five feet of any operational or utilizable entrance or exit; within 10 feet of a loading dock or driveway; in a manner that interferes with any activity for which the city has issued a permit or restricts accessible passage as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act; or anywhere within a street, including bike paths.

The law also prohibits encampments within 500 feet of a "sensitive" facility including schools, day care facilities, parks and libraries.