PEORIA, Ill. – The city of Peoria is looking to address homeless encampments with a measure aimed at banning public camping.
The issue was brought up for the first time at Tuesday night’s meeting. No action was taken because the issue was on first reading, but discussion lasted nearly an hour on the topic.
The proposed ordinance would ban camping in areas controlled by the city of Peoria, similar to a measure passed in Pekin after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned public camping does not violate the Eighth Amendment of the U.S Constitution.
People in violation of the measure would be punished with fine, or jail time if they receive three citations within an 180 day period.
In a report to council, the city says 15 encampments were cleared out, mainly along Interstate 74, between December of 2022 to October 2023, at a cost of $30,789.
Peoria Corporation Counsel Patrick Hayes says the city helps support housing and services to those who are homeless, but it’s still a problem.
“We’ve also received a lot of outcry from local businesses and constituents about the homelessness problem, including complaints from neighboring homeowners, who’ve had homeless encampments impair their quality of life and their home, as well as impairing quality of life at certain area businesses that are adjacent to homeless encampments,” Hayes said.
Hayes says the city has also had issues from a lack of support from the Illinois Department of Transportation to utilize trespass notices and enforcements to abate encampments.
The city says the ordinance is needed as an obligation to protect the health and safety of all residents. It says the encampments usually contain human waste, trash, used hypodermic needles, broken bottles, and other items that pose a risk.
2nd District Councilman Chuck Grayeb echoed those concerns in his comments to council, and added that the encampments take away the value of coming to Peoria.
“You explain to the business people downtown who have spent millions of dollars to attract people here, how it makes sense for people to get out of their cars in one of our parking decks, and we have defecation and urination remains in our stairwell,” Grayeb said.
Grayeb continued by making a claim that a homeless encampment was located near an elementary school, with used needles. He also addressed members of the public at the meeting who cheered against jail time for homeless people, saying that “nobody should be above the law.”
Mayor Rita Ali and a few members of the council say the proposed ordinance does not address the root causes of homelessness in Peoria, and felt it criminalized being homeless.
3rd District Councilman Tim Riggenbach said the ordinance did make sense, but that it only eliminated a nuisance.
“Currently we have two agencies, the Dream Center and Salvation Army, that provide low-barrier shelters. So you might ask why do we still have, call it 50 people, unsheltered? Clearly there’s some mental health issues at play, we’ve seen it in the past,” Riggenbach said.
At-large Councilwoman Bernice Gordon-Young says other issues at play include some people being banned at homeless shelters, and substance abuse problems. She also advocated talking to the people suffering homelessness to find out how they got into the situation they were in.
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