CHAMPAIGN – The Champaign City Council reversed course Tuesday night and voted down a proposal that would have imposed fines on people living in public encampments.
The measure would have prohibited people from camping on public and city property and required city staff to make an effort to connect people with social services. It also would’ve given the city the ability to remove personal property for people to collect at a later date.
City officials said the bill would not criminalize homelessness and the goal was to improve health and safety while offering better living conditions to those who need it.
Martel Miller, who conducts street outreach across Champaign County, told the council the ordinance would worsen the situation for people who are homeless.
“When you come to their tent, or wherever they’re at, and tell them they got to move and that’s all they got, you don’t think that they’re gonna escalate and it’s gonna come into where the police are going to end up [getting involved]… It’s gonna come into criminalizing,” he said.
Multiple local homeless service providers said they were not consulted on the measure.
Cedar King, the men’s program director for C-U At Home, told the council that people who are homeless already struggle; Many have been incarcerated or have been victims of violent crime.
“We cannot add another traumatic event where their campsite is being taken down, where their stuff is being taken away from them, because that’s the reality of what they experience on the streets already,” King said.
The council voted unanimously to reject the ordinance, but officials agreed more needs to be done to expand access to housing and social services.