Georgia cities and counties could be compelled to enforce bans on public camping or sleeping by homeless people under a bill moving forward in the state Senate.
The measure would also create a structure for the state to designate camping areas for homeless people, and calls for an audit to examine how state and local governments are spending money to alleviate homelessness.
The Senate State & Local Government Operations Committee voted 4-3 to advance Senate Bill 62 on Monday, sending it to the full Senate for more debate.
It’s the second year in a row that Sen. Carden Summers, a Cordele Republican, has offered a bill aimed at the problem. Last year’s bill would have been harsher, making it a misdemeanor to camp on public property and denying state grants to cities that didn’t enforce the ban.
After an uproar, the Senate decided instead on a study committee that made 26 recommendations over the summer. Summers is offering a new bill this year that only incorporates two of those recommendations, the audit, and sanctioned camping.
FORMER GEORGIA COP ARRESTED AFTER ALLEGEDLY CONCEALING MISSING 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL’S DEATH
On Monday, Summers said he had abandoned parts of his previous approach.
“Never once was this bill intended to criminalize any person sleeping on the street or the sidewalk,” Summers said.
But advocates still expressed concerns, saying the bill could lead to cities and counties being harassed by lawsuits over homeless enforcement and that the rules around sanctioned camping are too loose.
“You can be sued for not enforcing. It’s written in such a way that you’re going to require enforcement or risk a lawsuit,” said Isabel Otero, Georgia Policy Director for the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.
Opponents also said the bill doesn’t do enough to address underlying problems or promote permanent solutions.
“If the bill’s job is to remove homeless people so that you don’t see them as often, so that you’re not then uncomfortable by the sight of…
Read the full article here
