Sparks Fly as Colorado Springs Postpones Vote on Vehicle Camping Restrictions

By: Debbie Kelly | Colorado Politics

After about three hours of presentation, discussion and public comment, Colorado Springs City Council voted 5-4 Monday to postpone a proposal that would add a vehicle camping ban to city ordinances pertaining to illegal urban camping and consolidate them for standardization and consistency.

The issue will be taken up in six months, at the May 12 council meeting.

Opponents to the vehicle-camping ban in particular made a strong showing and included people who are or have been homeless, representatives from organizations that provide services to the homeless population, as well as high-profile community leaders such as Rabbi Iah Pillsbury, who leads Temple Beit Torah, and Dr. Jaeson Fournier, president and CEO of Peak Vista Community Health Centers.  

“The reason so many of our citizens don’t have safe, affordable housing is because of us, the reason they don’t have a bathroom is because of us, and it’s your responsibility to fix it, just like it is ours,” Pillsbury told City Council. “Each and every one of us is only one or a few medical crises away from being in our cars or on the streets.”

Fournier said making living in a car susceptible to receiving a ticket would have “predictable health consequences” that would be more costly for the city’s hospitals, as people rely on their cars to store medications, and frequent displacement adds to physical and mental distress, sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression and difficulty reaching them.

“Policy will not reduce homelessness, it’ll only make it more precarious and increase costs,” he said.

Some at the meeting used outbursts, name-calling and swear words to deliver their impassioned views, primarily revolving around what many see as “criminalizing homelessness.”

The City Council’s plan called for banning camping in a vehicle for more than 24 hours in the same spot without moving at least 1,000 feet away or given permission to be on private, not public property.

“I don’t see any human dignity in this — we need to criminalize crimes, not homelessness,” Susan Bolduc, a member of the Colorado Springs Faith Leaders Table, told City Council.

“There isn’t a way for people to get help if they’re unfairly evicted, and this is the pipeline of homelessness. Law enforcement is part of the solution, yes, but we need all of our experts to weigh in,” she said. “We need a comprehensive plan.”

The focused idea of a revised ordinance ballooned into calls for the need to solve a host of problems associated with homelessness.

Councilmember David Leinweber said he’d like to see a long-range, citywide strategic plan be developed to address glaring gaps such as the city’s lack of a homeless shelter for teens under 18 years old, no shelter for people with disabilities and limited respite care.

“We don’t want a smorgasbord of free stuff and people come in here and use our resources and not address the problem,” he said. “We need to understand it better and how to achieve better outcomes.”

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