The Wichita City Council voted Tuesday evening for stronger enforcement of an ordinance against illegal camping. The move, which supporters argued would simplify the ordinance, came after two hours of public comment.
Of the 24 people who spoke, 21 opposed updating ordinance, many of whom worried that the change would criminalize homelessness.
The council voted 4-3 in favor. Enforcement will begin in January.
Following public comment, Mayor Lily Wu proposed alterations that softened the new restrictions. Citations will be issued only by law enforcement. Other city employees doing clean-ups and posting notices will need the same training that the Homeless Outreach Team receives.
Another exception restricts law enforcement from disbanding an encampment and charging a homeless person unless shelter beds remain available. Council members considered altering that allowance but changed course after multiple residents protested the removal of it during Council.
The new limits approved by the council allow for rapid removal of reported encampments by law enforcement, city workers and contractors by eliminating the need to post notices to vacate. A particular focal point will be locations that “pose health and safety concerns” such as doorways, sidewalks, areas near bridges, bus shelters, playground and the multi-agency center campus.
Fines for illegal camping will also be lowered from up to $500 to up to $200. The ultimate fine is at the discretion of a judge who can substitute the cost in community service for $10 an hour. Opponents still worried that allowing for more clean-ups would result in more arrests and create more instability for Wichita’s homeless.
But Wu said the spirit of the ordinance was to help rather than harm homeless individuals.
“This is not a sweep to criminalize homelessness, this is to encourage individuals in our community on our streets, on sidewalks and underneath bridges that literally have a bed right now. And it’s a 24/7 shelter so that means you do not have to leave,” she said.
Wu reminded attendees that an illegal camping ordinance with punitive measures has existed since 2013 and said that Tuesday’s ordinance change will “simplify” language. According to officials, only five people have been arrested and put in jail for illegal camping violations in five years – one person was prosecuted. Wu joined Council members Dalton Glasscock, J.V. Johnston and Becky Tuttle in voting for the changes.
Council members Brandon Johnson, Maggie Ballard and Mike Hoheisel opposed it, expressing concern that it was being rushed. More review was needed, they said, to determine whether stricter enforcement would really convince a homeless person to seek shelter. Ballard was in favor of tabling the ordinance until it could be reviewed by the Homelessness Task Force.
Calls for ‘justice and dignity’
Efforts to oppose stricter camping restrictions began in the lobby of City Hall prior to the start of the meeting.
Justice Together, a grassroots coalition of interfaith communities in Sedgwick County, gathered to urge Council to reject policies that, they argue, further criminalize homelessness. State Senator Mary Ware, D-Wichita, and Wichita City Council member Mike Hoheisel were in attendance.
Justice Together has worked with the city on directly addressing policy issues in mental health and homelessness, pushing officials to commit to a fully-funded homeless multi-agency center (MAC, where the winter shelter is now) and a photo ID program for homeless residents.
The Rev. Dr. Karen Robu of Plymouth Congregational Church helps lead a prayer service in the lobby of Wichita City Hall. The service, which came prior to the approval of a stronger local ordinance against illegal camping, was organized by Justice Together, a multi-faith group critical of the measure. Credit: Jeff Tuttle
“The city has pledged just $650,000 annually and the county has yet to commit to any ongoing financial support,” Rabbi Andrew Pepperstone of Ahavath Achim Congregation, a synagogue, and co-president of Justice Together said at the gathering. “Today, we are calling on our local officials to answer God’s call to justice and mercy, to reject policies that criminalize homelessness and instead follow through on their commitment to use their petitions to champion and allocate funds for a fully-funded MAC – a solution that reflects the values of compassion, justice and dignity.”
He further expressed his disappointment with the ordinance change that would escalate enforcement.
“What’s happening here today is 180 degrees opposite of a Housing First approach. It’s a punitive approach and it’s one that could remove the need to check if there is a shelter bed available before they make an individual leave,” he said.
‘Doesn’t change the work’
Others protested silently. Donna Castillo-Garcia, a registered nurse and advocate, and Adam Greenleaf, an advocate currently experiencing homelessness, organized a morning group to hold up handmade signs with sayings such as “See us as people first,” “We need hope, not harm” and “Resources, not penalties.”
Greenleaf, who said he’s staying at the emergency winter shelter, said updating the ordinance is a mistake that would further stigmatize and harm an already-vulnerable population.
“There’s consequences that councils don’t even think about when locking somebody up from being homeless,” he said. “They’re blowing so much hate in people … There’s so much hopelessness. We don’t believe it’s gonna get better.”
Protestors to the ordinance change showed up at Council Tuesday to show their opposition. Some spoke during public comment, others held up signs pushing Council to remember the humanity of those experiencing homelessness. Adam Greenleaf, right, is currently homeless and advocated against stricter enforcement. Donna Castillo-Garcia, a registered nurse and advocate, center, organized the silent protest with Greenleaf. Credit: Stefania Lugli
Greenleaf added that he has been arrested and spent time in county jail, which he said demoralized him. He also spoke at length in front of the Council, saying that many homeless people don’t trust the shelter and law enforcement – something that he fears will only worsen after Tuesday’s vote.
From the perspective of some of those who work with the homeless in Sedgwick County, the city’s enhanced enforcement shouldn’t change a lot.
Matt Lowe, the community impact manager at The United Way of the Plains, reflected on Tuesday’s vote as a member of the Coalition to End Homelessness in Wichita/Sedgwick County.
“It doesn’t change anything for the Coalition because our work commitment is to making homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring. And while it may be one more challenge for those who are experiencing homelessness … it doesn’t change the work that we do. We’re still focused on housing. We’re still focused on functional zero for all populations,” he said, referencing a milestone that signifies a community has measurably solved homelessness.
Resources, investment and the law
For now, at least, the emergency winter shelter that opened on Nov. 29 at the former Park Elementary remains below maximum capacity. But usage is high.
While there are shelter beds available Dec. 17, Dawn Shepler, the President and CEO of Humankind Ministries, the operator of the shelter, said the use of the facility is exceeding expectations.
“We’ve hit numbers that we did not hit last year,” Shepler said at the meeting. “Since we have opened we have not hit our maximum capacity of 266 bodies in the facility. It will not be long until we hit that.”
According to Shepler, use from Dec. 5-15 saw “record numbers.” She said that the designated men’s sleeping area has hit capacity once – not extending into overflow – and the women’s area has been about half full.
Currently, the winter shelter can house 72 women, 128 men with an additional 66 beds for overflow. However, the overflow can’t sleep clients in co-ed situations, so it would likely hold beds for men, who make up a majority of the homeless. Since the shelter is low-barrier, it cannot accommodate families or children.
Expanded enforcement against illegal camping comes at a time when the funding for the community’s preferred solution – a multi-agency center that would, in addition to housing the emergency shelter, serve as a year-round one-stop resource center for the homeless – has yet to come to fruition.
While the City of Wichita has committed $6 million to the buildout of the MAC and $650,000 to the first two years of its operations, it’s not yet clear how it will be fully funded.
Mayor Lily Wu, right, joined three other council members, including Becky Tuttle, left, in approving an ordinance that allows more city employees the ability to cleanup encampments. After two and a half hours of public comment mostly against the proposal, Wu proposed changes that ultimately softened the measure. Still, Council members Brandon Johnson and Maggie Ballard, center, joined Mike Hoheisel in voting against it, contending the proceedings were being rushed. Credit: Jeff Tuttle
Pepperstone, the co-president of Justice Together, criticized the ordinance’s focus on expanded enforcement by more city employees.
“The logistics of that, to me, seem illogical, undoable and untitled,” he said. “All those resources would be better spent invested into the multi-agency center, rather than in this punitive system which is required time, energy and logistics.”
Yet District 4 Council member Dalton Glasscock pointed out that the city has invested millions in homelessness while the state Legislature has yet to do so. The last legislative session failed to allocate any dollars towards homelessness – with some rural lawmakers questioning whether the state is responsible for funding such efforts without a crack down on crimes committed by homeless people, such as camping or trespassing.
Greenleaf and Castillo-Garcia said contention over who’s funding what is unhelpful.
“I cannot trust two government entities that can’t even agree on one thing. It all becomes a competition about how much money they put in,” he said, adding that it’s felt among many homeless Wichitans that large investments don’t trickle down to positive changes amongst them.
Castillo-Garcia said efforts should focus on the humanity of those experiencing homelessness, reaffirming her stance that the ordinance change would make it more difficult for a homeless person to reintegrate back into society. She and Greenleaf have met with officials, law enforcement, service providers and homeless Wichitans to develop their trauma-informed advocacy and policy.
“Our thing is we want people to rebuild themselves. We want to see humans as the humans they are, respect that and honor that,” she said. “We’re not talking about dollars. We’re talking about lives.”
“Tell them they got potential. Try to invest in them. I tell my family, ‘I wish I could feel like I’m human,’” Greenleaf added.
A few people pushed back on the idea that the ordinance change would harm the homeless.
“The proposed changes do not criminalize poverty, but they do allow us to give discipline for behavior,” said Vincent Hancock, president of the Delano Neighborhood Association. “Ordinances are being ignored by both offenders and enforcers.” He said that someone reported a large tent underneath the Seneca Street bridge and that it took four days for it to be cleaned, not 72 hours as the previous ordinance mandated.
“Under this refreshment of the ordinance, it’d be gone immediately, if we can get officers to lay their discretion aside and enforce the laws on our books.”
But one homeless woman, who spoke at the meeting, disagreed.
Sara, on a three-year stretch of being homeless, said that she hopes officials and housed residents realize the reality of most of the homeless she knows: they didn’t choose their housing status.
“Most of the people out there aren’t because of bad choices, but a lot of us are down there because of bad situations. Most of us have PTSD. Most of us don’t feel safe … or have money for a hotel,” she said. “I’ve been trying to find a job but I don’t have an ID.”
When she spoke at the podium, she told the council that even when homeless individuals are given advance notice of a clean-up, it’s still difficult for them to leave on some notice, much less immediately.
“We’re the only ‘district’ in the city council that doesn’t have a representative,” she said.
“We have all the people that represent each district with neighbors saying what they think about the homeless, but we don’t have the homeless represent themselves.”
Stefania Lugli is a reporter for The Journal, published by the Kansas Leadership Center. This article was shared through the Wichita Journalism Collaborative.
