MISSOULA, Mont. – After Missoula City Council’s meeting on June 10, lasted for 10 hours while approving the city’s resolution for urban camping. The city council met again this afternoon to discuss and vote on the amendments for the urban camping ordinance.
The amendments that were passed include the Mayor of Missoula is directed to investigate the possibility of designating temporary camping sites and safe parking sites on city property or voluntary private property
Another amendment was for the mayor to investigate the feasibility of implementing a community service program which would be the consequence of urban camping violations instead of them being criminal offenses.
The other amendment that was passed was if a person’s vehicle has to be towed twice due to violations, the person may be fined. The original document stated the fines wouldn’t assed until the 3 violations were made.
Many members of the public spoke out opposing the ordinance at the meeting, saying that it makes the daily lives of homeless people much more difficult and a greater struggle to survive.
“We know that this ordinance directly contributes to physical harm, psychological harm, and death of members of your community and then penalize those members of your community for simply existing and attempting to survive,” said Sage Bennet, a Ward 3 resident in Missoula.
There were no public comments in support of the urban camping ordinance during the meeting.
Some amendments that were proposed but did not pass included getting rid of fines for urban camping violations altogether, allowing all homeless individual’s personal items to be eligible for storage, and the immediate implementation of temporary safe urban camping and parking sites.
The Missoula city council will give their final vote on the urban camping ordinance on June 24.
To read the minutes from the meeting and the full description of the proposed amendments, please go to the city of Missoula website.
