Fall River City Council makes homeless encampments illegal

The Fall River City Council voted last Tuesday evening to ban unauthorized camping on public property, outlawing homeless encampments and imposing fines on those living outdoors.

The ordinance, which the council passed 6-1, makes it unlawful for a person to camp or leave camping materials on public property without prior authorization and allows for police to dispose of camping materials and personal property. 

The ordinance also makes it illegal for a person to lie down or sleep on a public street, sidewalk, bike path, or public way or to urinate or defecate in a public space. 

Anyone violating the ordinance is subject to a fine unless they are homeless, no shelter beds are available, and the person is willing to go to a shelter immediately if space becomes available.

The new law comes months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that local governments can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside in public places. 

Fall River’s ordinance says camping on public property without access to water, sewer, and sanitation services interferes with the intended purpose of the public space. 

The ordinance states it “is necessary to preserve the health, safety, and welfare of the public.” 

Numerous people spoke out against the ordinance at the Tuesday council meeting, saying it would not solve the problem. 

Christopher Conlan, who was in and out of homelessness for over two years, said that the ordinance will only “perpetrate people into fear.”

Conlan said that many of those people are sick, suffering, or have fallen on hard times. By pushing them out, it will only make them feel more unsafe, he said. 

Instead, Conlan said, the city should show them compassion and work on solutions to find safe environments for people experiencing homelessness. 

“Everybody is somebody’s somebody, and everybody deserves to feel like they are worth the trouble,” he said. 

Rev. Jamie Spriggs, pastor of First Baptist Church in Fall River, noted that cold weather is just around the corner. 

“If you pass this ordinance at the end of September when the weather is going to get colder — people are going to die,” she said. 

Spriggs said this ordinance will not help people, but affordable housing will. 

“Let’s put this ordinance aside and work together to help them,” she said. 

Bristol County Sheriff Paul Heroux said the new ordinance will lead to “more inmates in my jail.” 

Heroux stated during the public speaking portion that the ordinance is meaningless if the city doesn’t collect fines from violators. However, if Fall River uses the court system to collect the fines and people still can’t pay, they could face contempt of court and potential jail time.

“We’re taking people who were previously homeless and had a really hard time getting a job, getting housing, getting their health care, and now you’ve added a criminal record to them because now they’ve been sentenced for violating a court order to pay the fines that were imposed by this ordinance,” Heroux said. 

All of which, he said, “I don’t want to see.” 

However, Councilor Brad Kilby said fines are necessary to give the law some teeth. 

“We are trying to help these human beings,” Kilby said during the hearing. “That’s the lost message. We have to do something. We have to act.” 

Kilby said a regional approach is needed to tackle the problem. He said the council can revisit it if it poses problems in the future. 

“The ordinance is not like the Ten Commandments, etched in stone,” he said. “We can revisit … Let’s get this on the books. People have been waiting.” 

Other council members mentioned that the homeless encampments come with problems for their neighbors, such as fires, people sleeping on doorways, and unsafe environments. 

Councilor Laura-Jean Sampson, who was the sole vote against the ordinance, disagreed.

“We have no overflow shelter yet,” she said. “So, we’re going to move these camps. We have nowhere to put these people. They’re going to go camp somewhere else.”

The ordinance now goes to Mayor Paul Coogan to sign. 

Coogan can veto the ordinance, but he told The Herald News, “I also can count. It was six to one.”  

 “I don’t know if there is any way to fine people, arrest people, or do anything like that that’s going to end homelessness,” he said.