Alejandra Leon fled domestic violence with her children in the summer of 2008. On Tuesday evening, she told Newark City Council’s Public Safety Committee that they found shelter at the Center for New Beginnings in Newark and lived there for five weeks.
Today, she worries about rising rents and those who need emergency shelter. The waits are long, she said, and the need is great. And she is very concerned about the future of unsheltered people in Newark if the council approves a proposed ordinance that would make it illegal for people to sleep or camp on public property in Newark.
Leon spoke on Sept. 4 in front of a standing-room-only crowd at Newark’s council chambers, with dozens of people straining to hear from the building lobby. Many were there to express their concerns about the ordinance.
“I am outraged that my city, an avowed Christian community, is now considering penalizing people who have no choice but to sleep outside,” Leon said after hearing council members pray at the start of their meetings. “This is inhumane. The hypocrisy of asking the Lord’s blessing while shunning the poor is using the Lord’s name in vain, and I call on this council to follow the Christian calling by exploring more humane, more effective and cost efficient ways to end homelessness.”
Leon, who works for the Licking County Coalition for Housing and St. Vincent de Paul Center in Newark was among a dozen people who offered nearly an hour of testimony about the ordinance. And they were among more than 100 people in attendance.
After hearing their comments, the safety committee opted to table the ordinance until its next meeting on Sept. 16.
The ordinance would prohibit people from sleeping “in or upon any sidewalk, street, alley, lane, public right of way, park, bench, or any other publicly-owned property or under any bridge or viaduct.” The proposal was unpopular with community members, including people actively experiencing homelessness, religious leaders and advocates for unhoused people.
A first offense of what the proposed ordinance calls “prohibited camping” would be considered a minor misdemeanor, and anyone found guilty could be sentenced to a fine of up to $150.
Any subsequent violations – including a second or third time found sleeping on a bench or in a doorway next to a public sidewalk – would be considered fourth-degree misdemeanors punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $250 for each offense.
“All I want is a home – some place I can lay my head,” said Katlyn Curliss, 55, who has been unsheltered in Newark for the last three years after the death of her husband from complications related to cancer. “I lay awake at night for the past three years and cry. … I just want something I can call home again.”
Curliss spoke at a city council meeting for the first time in her life Tuesday and was one of more than a dozen speakers who shared their stories and spoke in opposition to the proposed ordinance. Curliss, who is blind and experiences seizures, said she sleeps where she can – on benches and behind churches – but never in a home.
Council member Jeff Rath, who represents Newark’s third ward on the far west side, said this ordinance would not be “a solution” to the ongoing homelessness and housing crisis – because “that’s not the goal of this legislation.”
“But getting these people into jail, for a lot of them, is their opportunity,” he continued. “It’s their gateway into services. It’s an opportunity for them to get help, whether they take advantage of it or not.”
Attendees of the meeting were quick to point out to Rath that people with criminal records often face increased challenges in accessing housing, jobs and support services available in Newark.
Across the United States, formerly incarcerated people are almost 10 times more likely to be homeless than the general public, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. And with a limited supply of low-income or affordable housing in Licking County, some people have nowhere to go – other than public grounds.
At-large council member Bill Cost Jr. said arresting people for sleeping on public property would be detrimental to combatting homelessness in Licking County.
“We’re not going to solve this … by having everyone go to jail,” Cost said during the meeting. “When you come out of jail, you’re still going to be homeless. You’re still not going to have a job. The only thing you’re going to have is a criminal record.”
An ordinance like this could also increase the financial burden on local taxpayers, who would likely foot the bill for increasing arrests and jail time.
A 2014 study from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs shows the average cost of jailing one homeless person per day is close to $90 – and that doesn’t include additional medical costs or detox facilities – while the average cost of providing affordable or supportive housing is just $31 per day.
Throughout the committee meeting – which ended after about an hour because committee members needed to attend a meeting of the full city council at 7 p.m. – Newark residents stood up to advocate on behalf of their unsheltered neighbors.
“It seems that our city just wants to sweep the problem under a big rug and out of sight, out of mind,” said Mary Jo Ferrell, a volunteer at Licking County Coalition of Care. “Until the city of Newark comes up with a plan to help these unhoused groups of men and women, no matter what you do to their camp, it will continue.”
Volunteers from The Licking County Champions Network, local churches, and other community-based organizations also spoke at the meeting.
“I’ve been doing this for years and years and years … and we are trying to help the homeless,” said JT Sowards, a pastor at Crossroads Baptist Church, just west of downtown Newark on 6th Street. “We don’t just go over and give them a handout – we try to give them a hand up. The city does not recognize that.”
Soward said his ministry visits unsheltered residents in Newark each week, providing food, clothing and prayer for those who need it. In the past, Soward and his group have used the basketball courts across the street from the Licking County Sheriff’s Office, but the Newark Parks and Recreation Department has since told them they cannot use those facilities, he said during the meeting.
“We’re passing out food … We’re seeing people get off drugs,” Sowards said. “They kicked us off.”
While no one who spoke at the meeting publicly supported the legislation, council member Beth Bline, who represents Newark’s second ward on the south side, said Newark residents were split “about 50-50.”
“We have those who were scared to come who are just as passionate,” Bline said after the meeting. “My phone has rang from Thursday night clear up until [the start of the meeting]. People are scared to really say anything for it because it’s complicated. But we listen to everyone.”
Bline said the ordinance was crafted by the city’s law director after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in June that allows cities to make it illegal to sleep or camp on public property.
Newark is the second municipality in Ohio to consider legislation to prohibit public camping after the June 28 decision.
Last week, the city council in Mentor – a Cleveland suburb of nearly 50,000 people – unanimously passed an ordinance prohibiting camping on city-owned property.
“This isn’t an anti-anyone ordinance,” Mentor’s law director Joseph Szeman said during a recent city council meeting. “This is just to address specific behaviors where, frankly, they will do more harm than good and, in fact, place persons in danger.”
Curliss said after the meeting that, if approved, Newark’s proposed ordinance would likely kill her.
“I can’t see. I can’t walk. How is [going to jail] going to help me?” she asked after the committee meeting. “I’m just going to sit there in jail, wondering what I did so wrong. I just want housing.”
Mike Schmidt, president of the Licking County Foundation, told The Reporting Project in a phone interview Wednesday that the foundation is taking a creative approach to helping address the affordable housing crisis, including funding and convening meetings of people who could help bring more affordable housing to Licking County.
“There’s no magic pill,” Schmidt said. “The only way to address this is through partnerships with people addressing homelessness to those addressing housing.” We need comprehensive solutions, Schmidt said, that include investing in our social services, mental health, and our shelters.”
Julia Lerner and Jack Shuler write for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.