AURORA | The issue of how and when the city ousts homeless people camping on public property is scheduled for debate Monday at an Aurora city council review session.
A proposed resolution wouldn’t change Aurora’s year-old campaign ban, allowing the city to force homeless campers off of city streets, medians and parks without notice, city homeless program officials said last month at a city council committee meeting. Instead, the proposal would direct city staff to oblige homeless campers with a 72-hour warning, unless the camp creates an imminent safety threat to the campers or the public.
Current law was created about a year ago to reflect a Supreme Court ruling, saying that cities and counties do not have to provide some kind of shelter to homeless people in order to evict them from public encampments.
Previously, the city would only evict homeless campers if they could offer some kind of shelter accommodation.
Jessica Prosser, director of Housing and Community Services, told members of the city’s Housing, Neighborhood Services and Redevelopment Policy Committee last month that, for all practical purposes, the city already gives homeless campers about 72 hours to leave before abatement and trespassing charges are imposed, simply because of the time it takes to schedule and coordinate abatements.
City officials said the proposed change would not affect the city’s mandate to immediately remove campers from interstate medians and underpasses as a matter of public safety.
Sponsored by at-large Councilmember Rob Anderson, the measure seeks to ensure homeless campers are afforded time to find, consider and act on options.
At-large Councilmember Alison Coombs said during the committee meeting that change would still allow the city to break up encampments that create imminent threats but allow targets of abatements to determine whether to go to the city’s new comprehensive homeless Navigation Campus or consider other area shelters.
Critics of the proposal say it would undermine the city’s tough new encampment law.
“This is a way to undo the camping ban,” Councilmember Stephanie Hancock told committee members. “It’s just chipping at it one drop at a time, like the Chinese water torture and and we will not be safer. It is not a crime to be homeless, but homeless people commit crimes, and we need to, you know, this has a domino effect in how we keep our community safe.”
The panel moved the proposal to tonight’s city council study session.
The city’s current camping ban was approved by the former city council after the 2024 Johnson v Grants Pass Supreme Court ruling permitted the changes in Aurora and in cities across the country.
The only opposition to the camping ban then came from the three Democrats on the city council at the time. In November, Democrats took control of the city council and are sponsoring the proposed change.
“At the risk of sounding like a broken record, folks can say that this is not punitive, but the consequences certainly will be,” Coombs said last year before the previous city council enacted the camping ban. “When we create this discretion, it means that a person could be immediately moved with no notice and no offer of shelter and could be put in jail for up to 364 days. That is punitive.”
Proponents of the newest proposed change say it simply gives city police, rescuers and homelessness officials options in helping homeless campers find accommodations without the threat of losing their belongings.
The proposed resolution is slated for discussion at the city council study session Monday night.
This shouldn’t even be a debate. The homeless are trashing our city and are an eyesore. They need to be removed. Bus them to Boulder, or better yet, to California, where they can trash their cities. We don’t want them here. If our new radical left communist city council can’t see that and do nothing about the homeless situation, then they truly are a reflection of the stupidity of the local voter population. So, if you want to keep the homeless here, then you should open your doors up and let them into your homes to give them support.
This decision should be a no-brainer, but then again, most Aurora voters have demonstrated they have no brains.
Such a small brain, and yet so much hate. It’s funny you use the term, “no-brainer.” That should be your tag instead of desert fox.
Homeless defecate on the ground, leave trash. (A Black homeless man at 6th Avenue and NB I-225 off-ramp was picking up trash!) I thanked him.
There was a trash container there. Stolen?
Homeless people should taken to safe, sanitary (for them and us) shelters with beds, toilets and showers.
So happy to see E. Colfax with side streets cleaned up in the last year. You can actually walk the sidewalk. WHY break a system that is working. We all have a choice. The government is spending so much 💰 on these projects and they don’t give a hoot (for the most). Go ahead take them to your yard. Fix the problems within the city first. Apparently there is plenty to dig into.