Colorado Springs City Council voted to postpone for six months a vote to ban car camping within the city after an hours-long emotional hearing on Monday. The motion to postpone passed with a narrow 5-4 vote.
The ban would have extended the city's urban camping ban, aimed at curtailing homeless encampments in the city, to people sheltering in their cars on public property.
Many residents spoke out against the ban during a more than 3-hour-long hearing.
Colorado Springs resident Susan Bulduc said the ordinance lacks human dignity and the city should deal with this in more meaningful ways.
“We need to criminalize crimes, not blankets or human conditions,” said Bulduc.
Under the tabled proposal, violators could face tickets, and in some cases have their car impounded.
Resident Codi Natelli is a resident and emergency medical technician in Colorado Springs. She said a vehicle is often the last piece of stability and safety a person might have.
“When you take a vehicle away through citation, impounded enforcement, you turn someone who is barely hanging on into someone who now has nothing left to lose,” said Natelli.
Proponents of the ban, like Old Colorado City resident David Vaillancourt, said the ordinance is needed to keep their neighborhoods safe and clean.
“I and my neighbors have personally witnessed domestic disputes. We've had gunshots late at night. We've had campers parked for weeks on end in city streets in my neighborhood, and we've had, I can't even count the amount of trash and debris left behind,” Vaillancourt said.
Councilor Nancy Henjum proposed tabling the discussion. She said she's not opposed to addressing the issue, but said not enough stakeholders were at the table when this particular ordinance was written.
“This was done without police involvement. It was done without the fire department who works with them. It was done without service providers. It was done without our own chief housing and homeless response officer's input,” Henjum said.
Council is scheduled to take up the issue again in May.
