'Where will they go?' Fayetteville considers legal process for clearing homeless encampments

The Fayetteville City Council on Monday was not supportive of a plan that would provide the legal framework and protocols to clear out homeless encampments across the city that posed public health and safety risks for the individuals living there and for the passersby.

For more than a year, city staff has been working to come up with a plan to address encampments. "The approach we're taking right now is not working," City Manager Doug Hewett said.

On Monday, city staff asked City Council to approve an ordinance that would expand the definition of camping — which currently only applies to the erection of tents — to sleeping, making preparations to sleep and storing belongings. It also would expand the list of prohibited places — which currently are only parks and cemeteries — to vehicles, city-owned property and private property without written consent of the owner.

Brook Redding, assistant to the city manager, said these changes would give the city protection legally to clear encampments that are public health and safety risks.

However, the city staff’s proposed plan includes more than a new ordinance. It also incorporates shared jurisdictional authority with the Department of Transportation for encampments on roads, establishes a protocol for the engagement of unsheltered individuals, and standardizes the procedure for cleanup of public property used for shelter.

Economic and Community Development Director Chris Cauley said it would allow city staff to assess encampments for their public health and safety risks and work with partners to provide services to the people living there using "a trauma-informed, compassionate approach."

Different faces of homelessness

Councilwoman Shakeyla Ingram was critical of the plan. “We already know we don’t have enough beds. Where will they go? I’m looking at a Monopoly board, and everything to me says ‘go to jail’ card,” she said.

Redding responded that, if there is no shelter available, the city cannot clear any encampment. However, if the encampment is high risk, then the availability of beds isn’t a limiting factor.

Cauley added that most nights the city does have beds available. In addition, the city is working on constructing a day center, and the county is considering building another homeless shelter.

More: Homeless center in Fayetteville set to open on King Street next year

More: Cape Fear Valley to partner with Cumberland County for another homeless shelter

Ingram noted that people with jobs are struggling to maintain housing. “In my brain right now, there is no shelter,” she said. “All I can hear is jail or hospital psych ward.”

Councilwoman Yvonne Kinston added that some people without housing are people who have jobs, but can’t afford increasing rents, and decide to temporarily sleep in their cars.

Cauley replied that he was glad that the council was recognizing that “the face of homelessness isn’t just someone on the side of the street.”

Council Larry Wright said that he did not want the public to think that the council was “insensitive” to housing issues. “If this policy is implemented, we will create an emergency situation that will call for extreme measures,” he said. “My heart would not want me to do that.”

Wright added that the city wasn’t giving unhoused individuals “a free pass” by not clearing encampments. The city was being fair. “Anybody at any time could become homeless,” he said.

New tools

In response to the other council members’ comments, Mayor Mitch Colvin said, “I don’t think anybody on this desk is saying we’re not compassionate. This is saying we have to join our peers — Asheville, Charlotte, Raleigh, Winston Salem — in putting additional restrictions in what you can do in that area we call right of ways.”

Colvin added that the city wasn’t doing these individuals a favor “by turning the other way and not giving them services.”

City Manager Hewett said that this council had done more for individuals experiencing homeless than any council he has worked with previously.

“This is not our effort to run anyone out of the city of Fayetteville who may find themselves in a homeless situation. But we do need tools to address high-risk homeless encampments, and we currently don’t have those,” he said.

Ingram asked once again where people would go. City staff couldn’t answer.

The council unanimously decided to direct staff to continue researching the practicalities of this plan. It also decided to table the discussion of the ordinance without an explicit date.

Reporter Ivey Schofield can be reached at ischofield@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville considers legal process for clearing homeless encampments