The Fort Collins Camping Ban
It’s no secret that Fort Collins has been facing an increase in the homeless population. The City of Fort Collins has been working hard to decrease the number of homeless people through various policies, shelters, programs, and city-wide initiatives; such as Homeward 2020.
Unfortunately, some of the city’s policies hasn’t helped to solve homelessness, but rather isolated and criminalized those without a home. One such policy is the camping ban.
This ban, according to Section 17–181 of the Fort Collins Municipal Code, defines “camping” as “to sleep, spend the night, reside or dwell temporarily with or without bedding or other camping gear and with or without shelter, or to conduct activities of daily living such as eating or sleeping.” This ban also prohibits people from sleeping in their vehicles even if they are parked legally (Section 17–182).
While Fort Collins does have homeless shelters, like The Fort Collins Rescue Mission and Catholic Charities Northern, there just aren’t enough beds to support the homeless population. Fort Collins Rescue Mission has the maximum capacity of about 90 people and Catholic Charities Northern can fit about 40 people, plus 20 more for when winter hits. However, according to Homeward 2020, there are approximately 434 people experiencing homelessness in Fort Collins right now. This leaves about 284 to 304 people without a secure place to sleep.
But with the camping ban in place, not only do they not have shelter, it literally leaves them no place to sleep at all.
Homeless people who are caught illegally camping are told to “move along” or else they are ticketed and can expect jail time and fines up to $2,600. If they can’t pay the fines, they could be imprisoned. Because a homeless person typically can’t afford to pay that kind of fine, it is inevitable for them to be imprisoned. Not only does this literally criminalize them, but it dehumanizes them by treating them like a stray dog being picked up by the pound.
However, in situations like this, it is important to remember why city officials implemented these kinds of policies. While a lot of homeless people sleeping in public areas and in their cars are typically just trying to rest, there are cases of illegal drug activity occurring in these areas. In addition, there are often messes left where a person slept that previous night. The city would then have to spend money to clean it up.
As Assistant Chief of Police for the City of Fort Collins Tim Doran said, “I think it’s important that everyone feels safe and welcome in our community, and that we’re not trying to give any one slice of that community more attention than the other.”
While the City of Fort Collins is working hard to try to fix the homelessness problem, it is important to remember to use the city’s resources for causes that are actually working toward solving the problem.
One such community that utilized the city’s resources to end homelessness was in Montgomery County, Maryland. The government there used its resources to find out exactly how much money the community needed in order to end veteran homelessness. Once the community could actually see the price, they were able to work toward getting the funding to reach the goal that ultimately ended veteran homelessness.
Rather than trying to move the problem from one section of the city to another or imprisoning it, the city should focus on implementing more permanent solutions, such as bigger and cleaner shelters and affordable housing.
