Public camping laws changing

In a 6-1 vote, the Shelton City Council on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to changing city laws on public camping, again making it a misdemeanor crime without regard to whether shelter space is available.

A public hearing on the measure will be hosted at the council's meeting at 6 p.m. June 3 at the Shelton Civic Center. The council then can take a second vote that evening to make the change official.

The proposed penalty for public camping would be up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Council member Miguel Gutierrez made a motion to table the vote until after the council started working on its 2026 budget and could better understand the financial ramifications of paying to arrest, try and jail people for the crime. Council member Tom Gilmore seconded the motion, but it was defeated 5-2. Gutierrez then was the dissenting vote when the council gave preliminary approval to the ordinance change.

The city council in November 2021 adopted a new ordinance addressing the prohibition of public camping, enforcement procedures and the removal of personal property. At the time, federal case law prohibited municipalities from imposing criminal penalties for public camping unless indoor shelter options were available.

But last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that local ordinances imposing criminal penalties on acts such as public sleeping or camping do not violate the Eighth Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment even when shelter space is available.

City Manager Mark Ziegler pointed out that in the proposed ordinance, camping is defined as "remaining overnight in a tent, hut, lean-to or other temporary structure." Public property is defined as "all real property within the city limits in which the city has property interest and which is reserved for any public purpose, including city-owned rights-of-way, parks, public facilities, easements, critical areas and buffers."

Nine people spoke for and against the proposed change during public comments.

Shelton resident and downtown business owner Dean Jewett said it is important to distinguish between people who are "homeless" and those who are "vagrants." Someone who is homeless could be seeking resources to get back on their feet, while a vagrant could be engaged in illegal and destructive behavior, he said.

He pointed out that more than 20 tents were erected at that moment a few blocks away in Brewer Park. In downtown Shelton, "this isn't just homelessness – it's vagrancy," he said.

Jewett said a person who has lived on the downtown Shelton streets for years last week died of a drug overdose. "How did enabling help him?" he asked. "It didn't."

Quion Barker, who works with Youth Connection downtown, said people on the street "need support, not punishment."

"Let's focus on solutions that restore dignity and hope," he said.