Note: I run a debate club, which recently debated the Motion “This House Supports Enforcing Public Camping Bans When Shelter is Available and Offered”. I was the speaker in favor of the Motion (i.e., banning camping). This series of posts summarizes my speaking points. This is the final post in the series.
First, a few definitions:
Camping: Making living accommodations or preparations to sleep, sleep, erecting a tent, or storing belongings in prohibited areas.
Prohibited areas: public right-of-ways, such as streets, alleys, sidewalks, plazas, and entrances to buildings, as well as park areas with public access that are not designated camping sites or are off-hours for recreational use, e.g., overnight.
Reasonable and safe shelter: at a minimum, conditions that are conducive to restful sleep: quiet, supervised, with storage space and a place to keep pets. Also, sufficiently clean and uncrowded to protect shelter residents from contagious diseases and criminal victimization. Ideally, all shelters would allow a stay of at least a week.
Recap: Public camping bans are common but often unenforced, especially in big cities with large unsheltered homeless populations. I argued that if reasonable, safe and humane shelter is available and offered to unsheltered individuals, they should not be allowed to camp out in prohibited public spaces. I further argued that the cost of ensuring adequate shelter would be less than the costs associated with unsheltered living. See previous posts for more details on my arguments and evidence ( (here, here and here).
Here are some shelter options:
Emergency shelters provide short-term shelter without requiring occupants to sign leases or occupancy agreements. Emergency shelters often involve varying degrees of communal living and have traditionally provided overnight accommodation only. However, under my “reasonable and safe” standard, they will need to upgrade their accommodations and services by allowing longer stays (up to a week) and provide daytime services and space for belongings and pets. Note that one reason traditional emergency shelters allowed just one-night stays was because there hasn’t been enough shelter space to meet demand. If there were sufficient shelter space for a community’s unsheltered population, there would be less need to limit stays to one night.
Navigation Centers and Cabin Communities permit individuals to stay longer periods of time (e.g., six months) and provide other stabilization services such as laundry, sanitation, showers, and social workers to help residents identify permanent supportive housing.
Sanctioned Parking and Camping Areas are often on church or city-owned properties. Homeless individuals may park their vehicles or RVs on church properties overnight and be allowed to return in the evening. Or they may stay in a tent several months in a sanctioned camping area. Bathroom/shower, sanitation and support services would be available on church property and in the tent camps.
Transitional shelter/housing provides homeless individuals with temporary housing (typically room or apartment) and social services that allow them to move to and maintain permanent housing. According to HUD (Housing and Urban Development), transitional housing may be used to cover the costs of up to 24 months of housing with accompanying supportive services.
Shelters are temporary living spaces for the unsheltered homeless. The ultimate goal is permanent housing. Here are some permanent housing options:
Rapid re-housing serves a wider variety of individuals and families by providing short-term rental assistance and location services, including motels/hotels. Rapid re-housing aims to help people obtain housing quickly, increase their self-sufficiency, and remain housed.
Permanent supportive housing is a housing intervention that combines non-time-limited affordable housing assistance and support services like intensive case management or counseling for PTSD, substance abuse, and other ills.
Other Permanent Housing options include public housing, housing vouchers, subsidized units, SROs (Single Room Occupancy units in residential hotels), landlord-liaison programs, and transportation to move in with friends or family members.
Just a few words on what it means for shelter to be “available and offered”. I’m envisioning that law enforcement and outreach workers would have access to an updated database and would offer and provide transportation to an available shelter. If the homeless individual refuses the offer, he would be asked to leave the prohibited space, with the law enforcement/outreach team returning every so often to make sure he has left. If the individual hasn’t left after three or four such “warnings”, he would be cited. After a certain number of citations spanning a certain number of days, he would be booked in the local jail.