Public safety committee approves drafting of encampment ordinance after community safety concerns

The Homewood Public Safety Committee on Sept. 22 voted to send to council a draft ordinance that would prohibit camping and erecting temporary shelters on public property and set hours to limit overnight sleeping and vehicle habitation in parks and other public places.

The committee’s move follows several weeks of public comment and extensive committee discussion in which residents described repeated encounters with people they said were sleeping in parks, near schools and along trails, and described episodes that made them fear for their children’s safety. The committee vote directs city attorneys and staff to draft a text for the council’s consideration on the coming Monday.

Police officials told the committee they regularly ask people who are camping on public property to move and have limited enforcement options when violations are not witnessed by officers. “We try to ask them to leave and go to a different area to sleep…we’re encountering the same people…