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Advocates Fight Proposed Increase to Punishments for Camping in DC On 10 September, President Donald Trump’s executive order to temporarily take control of DC’s police force expired. The same day, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform met to discuss a set of bills seeking to exercise Congress’s authority over DC, many of which advanced the president’s agenda to make DC “safe and beautiful”, including cracking down on homelessness and crime in the District. By Shani Laskin On 10 September, President Donald Trump’s executive order to temporarily take control of DC’s police force expired. The same day, the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform met to discuss a set of bills seeking to exercise Congress’s authority over DC, many of which advanced the president’s agenda to make DC “safe and beautiful”, including cracking down on homelessness and crime in the District. While many of Congress’s DC-related bills focus on crime prevention and law enforcement more broadly, the Clean and Managed Public Spaces Act specifi cally targets homelessness by increasing the penalties for people camping outdoors on public property. If the bill is passed, people camping outside could be fi ned up to $500 and/or jailed for up to 30 days. Advocates against the bill argue that punitive measures like fi nes do not address the root causes of homelessness and trap people in cycles of poverty. This bill is part of an increasingly common trend of criminalizing homelessness and abandoning housing-fi rst approaches. Last summer, the Supreme Court ruled in Johnson v. Grants Pass that enforcing penalties for sleeping outside did not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment”. Then, this July, Trump issued an executive order encouraging all levels of government to enforce camping bans, utilize involuntary commitment to move people off the streets, and end support for housing-fi rst policies. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, in the year following the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass ruling, cities across the country passed a total of 220 bills criminalizing homelessness, similar to the one proposed for DC. Of the other 13 pieces of legislation that the committee discussed, only one passed without signifi cant debate. The bill, sponsored by Democrat DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, would allow the DC Council to send legislation electronically to Congress. The rest of the Republican-introduced bills, including the Clean and Managed Public Spaces Act, were highly contested, with votes largely split along party lines. All bills passed the committee, and the House of Representatives will vote on each individually. As of 23 September, four of the bills have and home rule of our local government.” A week later, on 19 September, Bowser, Schwalb, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, and former Deputy Director of the White House Offi ce on Gun Violence and Prevention Gregory Jackson Jr., testifi ed before the committee. In their statements, each argued that the federal government was breaching DC’s autonomy, and emphasized the ways that they believe Congress could more effectively support the District, including funding bridge housing for people exiting homelessness, confi rming judicial nominations, and aiding in efforts to increase law enforcement retention. In his testimony, Mendelson said: “It is frustrating to watch this committee debate and vote on 14 bills regarding the District, without a single public hearing, with no input from District offi cials or the public, without regard for community impact, nor a shred of analysis, including legal suffi - ciency or fi scal impact.” What would the Clean and Managed Public Spaces Act do? Sponsored by Republican South Carolina Representative William Timmons, the Clean and Managed Public Spaces Act would increase the potential fi ne for camping on public property to $500. The bill passed the House and are headed to the Senate. One would lower the age at which DC youth can be tried as adults to 14, another would decrease the maximum age at which someone can have youth offender status from 24 to 18, and a third would repeal restrictions on law enforcement’s ability to conduct high-speed chases. The last bill would put DC judicial nominations solely in the hands of the president. DC’s Home Rule Act, established in 1973, gave residents the right to vote for the mayor, DC councilmembers, and advisory neighborhood commissioners, who oversee the city and govern on local matters. While Congress maintains some control over the District, home rule grants a level of autonomy for DC-elected offi cials who govern the over 700,000 residents who do not have voting representation in the federal government. In the committee meeting, Norton introduced letters from the DC Council, Mayor Muriel Bowser, and DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb, expressing opposition to the 13 bills, with the council calling them “an unprecedented attack on the autonomy would also allow police to arrest people for camping, resulting in a jail sentence of up to 30 days. It defi nes a camp as “any material to set up, maintain, or establish a temporary place of abode,” meaning that it could potentially apply to people who sleep outside but not in traditional tent encampments. Under the current DC Municipal Regulations, the unauthorized use of public spaces, such as camping, is illegal and punishable by a fi ne of up to $300. A person cannot be arrested solely for living outside, but police can arrest them if they are suspected of having committed a crime, or refuse to leave an encampment, according to the offi ce of the DC Attorney General. The city routinely conducts encampment clearings to dissuade people living outside from setting up structures, although arrests are rare. However, people experiencing homelessness have recently been arrested for other charges, such as having open containers or fare evasion. enforcement to step in “when DC refuses to act.” Committee Democrats argued against the legislation because of what they deemed to be an overreach into local governance, as well as the bill’s disciplinary measures and its lack of acknowledging the role of services in tackling homelessness in DC, Democrat California Ranking Member Robert Garcia called the bill “wrong and immoral” and criticized its failure to address causes of homelessness, like housing supply, service capacity, and affordability. Democrat Florida Representative Maxwell Frost similarly condemned the bill and emphasized the need to address the housing shortage and increase access to services, saying: “It does cost more, and it is harder, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it.” Democrat Pennsylvania Representative Summer Lee called the bill “lazy and dishonest policymaking,” arguing that the intent of the bill was not to solve homelessness but to punish those experiencing it. After about 45 minutes of debate, the committee passed the bill without amendments, voting on party lines with 25 in favor and 20 against. How are DC providers and advocates responding? Throughout the committee meeting, Democrats continuously criticized Republicans for attempting to enact laws upon the city without the input or approval of DC’s leadership and residents. A 9 September call-to-action from the National Homelessness Law Center (NHLC) called on people in and outside of DC to contact their representatives to oppose the bill, stressing that DC has no voting member of Congress. The Clean and Managed Public Spaces Act has yet to pass through the House and Senate. While it is likely to pass the Republican-majority House, the Senate may prove more diffi cult, given that some Democrats would need to support the bill. In fact, Republican Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton introduced a nearly identical bill at the end of July that has yet to pass the chamber. What did the representatives argue? Timmons and his allies asserted that the bill would restore order to the city, with Republican Kentucky Chairman James Comer referencing the August executive order, which required the removal of encampments across DC. In his statement during the meeting, Timmons argued that “allowing individuals to sleep in tents on the streets is not compassion, it is neglect.” He went on to say that the bill would allow law enforcement to connect people living in encampments to services, which outreach teams already do, and that arrests could result in a conditional discharge, not criminal penalties. That caveat is not refl ected in the text of the bill. In a press release following the meeting, Timmons’ offi ce wrote that the bill could also encourage federal law According to NHLC Campaign and Communications Director Jesse Rabinowitz, hundreds of people across the country have engaged with this effort. Rabinowitz also told Street Sense that the center has been lobbying representatives, including Frost and Lee, to advocate against the bill. “The average rent in DC is over $2,300 a month for a one-bedroom, and that might be pocket change for Donald Trump and other billionaires, but for a lot of people, that’s too much money to afford. Housing is too expensive, and the solution to homelessness is housing and support, not handcuffs and deploying the National Guard to DC,” Rabinowitz said. The director of policy at Miriam’s Kitchen, Andy Wassenich, emphasized that criminalization furthers the issue of homelessness by trapping people in cycles of incarceration and poverty. Organizations such as the National Alliance to End Homelessness have long held that the solution to homelessness involves many facets, including but not limited to increasing access to affordable housing and quality services and treatment. “Punishing individuals for being homeless is counterproductive,” Wassenich said. “It’s not what people need. They need to be lifted up, not hammered down.” Courtesy of Street Sense / INSP.ngo Page 17

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