SC housing groups, led by ACLU, say Columbia laws criminalize homelessness

Three new laws passed by Columbia City Council this year target homeless residents in “inhumane” and “illegal” ways, the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina says.

The organization is urging Columbia leaders to rescind the ordinances.

“Our city needs effective, legitimate, and legal solutions to housing insecurity and homelessness — and these ordinances don’t offer that. Instead they will perpetuate and worsen a cycle in which people are arrested and shuffled from the streets to jail cells and back,” reads a letter addressed to Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann and Columbia City Council, signed by the leadership of the ACLU South Carolina.

Half a dozen other groups tied to housing also signed the letter: One80 Place, Rainy Day Fund, S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center, S.C. Housing Justice Network, S.C. Poor People’s Campaign and Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network.

The city laws in question are all ordinances that were passed this summer, and each of them was first introduced during a July 18 council meeting.

The first ordinance (2023-079) made a slight change to the city’s ordinance banning urban camping. The city’s existing ordinance prohibited urban camping in public places such as parks and streets but stated no one could be arrested without first receiving a verbal or written warning. The new ordinance added language saying, “warnings are not particular to a location but to the unlawful conduct overall.”

The next ordinance (2023-080) made it illegal to steal shopping carts from businesses in Columbia and established a fine of up to $500 for anyone found with a shopping cart that is registered to another owner. That ordinance also created a responsibility for the shopping cart owners, such as grocery stores, to retrieve the carts and keep them on their property.

The third ordinance (2023-081) made it illegal to possess or distribute any drug paraphernalia, such as syringes, balloons and glass pipes. City officials have stressed something will only be considered drug paraphernalia when it’s clear the items are being used in tandem with controlled substances.

The ACLU’s letter to Columbia leaders says these ordinances are ineffective and ultimately criminalize behavior most associated with homelessness.

“Housing is the answer, not handcuffs,” the letter adds.

The letter goes on to note that Columbia has the eighth-highest eviction rate among large cities in the U.S., according to Princeton University’s Eviction Lab. According to the Eviction Lab website, that data is current as of 2016.

The initial fee to file for an eviction in South Carolina is just $40.

“It’s inexpensive for landlords to file evictions, so they do it frequently, often every month when the rent is late,” the letter reads, adding, “To address homelessness, the City should focus on effective evidence-based strategies, especially upstream solutions aimed at reducing evictions.”

The letter highlights Charleston County’s housing court program, which was mandated by the South Carolina Supreme Court after North Charleston reported evicting 16.5 renters for every 100 in 2016 — the highest rate in the country at the time.

In 2022, that program was successful in helping roughly 400 tenants avoid eviction, according to the letter from the ACLU.

The letter claims the city’s new policies may also be expensive, citing research from the Urban Institute that tracked the cost of shuffling a person from the street, to jail and back into homelessness again.

The ACLU also raised questions about whether the city’s laws are legal, citing examples in other jurisdictions where judges have ruled against ordinances that prohibit sleeping in public places.

“Homelessness can feel like an intractable problem, and the desire to do something, anything, is understandable. But the harm that these ordinances will cause to real people — to our neighbors and community members — is clear. Columbia is heading down an ineffective, expensive, and illegal path, and we urge you to change course,” the letter concludes.

The Columbia area reported locating 226 unsheltered people experiencing homelessness last January during an annual point-in-time count required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The total number of people without housing is much higher, estimated at 987, when people staying in motels and couch-surfing with friends are included, according to federal data.

Columbia leaders have spent much of the last year and a half focused on addressing the presence of unsheltered homeless residents downtown.

In November, the city bought 50 pallet shelters and built Rapid Shelter Columbia, intended for chronically homeless residents. Rickenmann also has advocated for the creation of a new campus where a variety of services aimed at homeless residents would be relocated into a one-stop shop for transitional housing, addiction services, health care, social work and more.

More recently, the city announced a partnership with Christ Central Ministries to allow any group that wants to serve meals to homeless residents free access to a communal kitchen on Main Street. City leaders have said they want to end the practice of feeding homeless residents in public parks in favor of the centralized Christ Central location.

Many activists that serve homeless residents have pushed against the partnership, citing similar concerns about restricting the behavior of homeless residents.