Angela Flannigan was sleeping in a former roommate’s car when the vehicle was repossessed in January.
Suddenly, she lost the safety of locked doors and the ability to earn money by driving.
With help from service organizations, she was able to stay in a motel for more than a week, but eventually, Flannigan ended up on the streets.
“I actually was sleeping inside a building that's open all night, and I don't sleep,” Flannigan said. “I just sit and because I'm too nervous about actually laying down and going to sleep.”
Chuck Snyder, 58, is disabled and homeless and it's not by choice, he explains.
Snyder describes homelessness succinctly saying, “It sucks. It's hard.”
Camping bans
Flannigan and Snyder both live in Newark. The city passed a “camping ban” in October. Newark City Council faced a flood of public outcry from locals, churches and organizations that serve the poor and unhoused, along with a bit of support from residents who felt unsafe or were fed up seeing encampments from their back windows.
Last month, Heath, a city of about 10,000 that borders Newark, passed a similar ban. Their meeting gained much less public attention, as Denison University’s Reporting Project reported.
The camping bans make it illegal to sleep or create a “campsite” on a sidewalk or bench, under a bridge or in a doorway. Those who are caught breaking the law first face a misdemeanor, then can rack up additional misdemeanor offenses and the accompanying fines and potential jail time.
Newark City Councilman Doug Marmie said at the October council meeting where the law was passed that it isn’t meant to make homelessness illegal.
“This is a mechanism for police to protect the citizens of Newark, Ohio,” Marmie said before the vote. “Currently, someone can choose to camp in between my sidewalk and my street in front of my house, and the police can do nothing.”
Councilman Spencer Barker said the law boiled down to public health and safety.
“The presence of makeshift camps on sidewalks, streets and other public areas present serious risks to both the individuals camping and the broader community,” Barker said, pointing to “unsanitary conditions.”
He said the law, “recognizes the need to balance empathy with the responsibility to maintain the safety and order of our shared public spaces.”
Concerns
Flannigan said she was unaware of the camping ban when she was sleeping on the streets. Snyder, who had been living in a motel but had to move out, said he knew of a place to sleep – and he just won’t get caught.
Both were at a recent drop-in for the unhoused, elderly, and working poor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Newark. Snyder and Flannigan ate chips and Jell-O, while about a dozen others rested at the rows of tables. In the church entrance, bicycles heaped with clothes and bedding sat on tarps. And under one table, a kitten – someone’s pet – slept peacefully.
Donna Gibson, who runs the drop-in weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., sat in front of a menu announcing, “Everyone welcome!” and “Lunch: homemade pizza, salad.”
Gibson calls Newark’s camping ban “scary.”
“They feel like they're sneaking all the time. Where can I sneak a spot to get a little bit of rest?” Gibson said. She wondered, how can anyone find a job when they can’t rest?
Gibson knows people have changed where they sleep since the ban went into effect, but she doesn’t ask where they go at night.
“I've asked them not to tell me, because I don't want to be in a position – I don't, I can't lie,” she said.
Supportive services
Before Health enacted its camping ban on Feb. 18, Mayor Mark Johns wrote in a letter on social media that some residents had asked for a law similar to the one in Newark. He was sold on the idea after hearing that Newark was starting a diversion program for those charged under the law.
He described what he learned in a meeting with Newark officials: “It is not just a process of charging homeless people with fines or putting them in jail. It is an effort to better provide some of our area’s homeless population with a connection to resources, services, and other means of trying to address issues that could be the cause of their homelessness,” Johns wrote. “Mental health, addiction and/or financial hard times are just some of these reasons. If those in the diversion program complete it successfully the charge against them will be dismissed.”
Johns was not available for an interview with WOSU, and Heath City Council President Tim Kelly did not respond to an interview request.
What Johns was describing in his letter was Newark’s HOME court, or Housing Opportunities Through Municipal Engagement, explained Melanie Timmerman, assistant law director for the city of Newark.
“This was a dream that Law Director (Tricia) Moore had when Newark was talking about the prohibited camping ban and going through that process,” Timmerman said.
Timmerman said participation in the court will be voluntary for those who are eligible, which includes anyone experiencing homelessness who is charged with a nonviolent misdemeanor in Licking County. Those cited for a camping ban will be presumed eligible, while other arrests may be handled on a case-by-base basis, Timmerman said.
Those who complete the program can have their fines wiped out, though court fees will still apply.
Timmerman said the feedback on the HOME court has been positive.
“We’ve had people come in who were initially opposed to the prohibited camping ban, but after they've heard about what we want to do with HOME court, they're excited at least about the opportunity that home court will provide for individuals who are experiencing homelessness.”
Timmerman said the law office hopes to launch the court this spring. She said so far, Newark hasn’t issued citations under the camping ban.
Ban across the state
Newark and Health aren’t the only Ohio cities that have put camping bans in place since the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that they were legal last year.
“We are seeing an increasing number of local communities reserving to criminalization bans against home office,” said Marcus Roth, the communications director at the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO).
Roth says COHHIO is aware of about a dozen mid-size Ohio cities that have discussed or enacted bans. Cities with bans in place include Ashtabula, Findlay, Brunswick and Medina. Roth said, however, COHHIO can only keep track of bans through media reports and tips, so there may be more.
Roth calls the laws “ineffective.”
“The underlying problem is that a lot of people have nowhere else to go. So, banning it basically does nothing to address the problem,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s recent survey does show that overall homelessness in Ohio increased by about 3%.
Roth says it may seem like homelessness is growing faster than that, though, because unsheltered homelessness is increasing faster.
“It gives the impression that homelessness is increasing more rapidly because it's more visible,” Roth said.
He understands that lawmakers want to do something, but Roth believes camping bans make the problem worse. Plus, he said campsite cleanups and court and jail costs often fall on taxpayers.
Meanwhile, there’s still not enough affordable housing for the people who need it, and those who get arrested for camping end up with criminal records that makes securing housing even harder.
“We're urging people, urging policy makers to invest in proven solutions like housing and services,” Roth said.
Back at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Angela Flannigan just wants people to better understand homelessness.
“I think if they got to know the people, they'd realize they're human beings,” Flannigan said.
