The Juneau Assembly is considering changing city code to make it easier for police officers to arrest people without housing who are camping in public spaces.
At a committee of the whole meeting on Monday night, Assembly members advanced a proposed plan to change the city’s disorderly conduct code.
The discussion on the proposed policy changes comes as city leaders say they’ve received a growing number of complaints from residents and businesses about the problems that people without housing are causing for surrounding neighborhoods where they camp.
“This would give our officers a tool that they could quickly deploy when they’re seeking to address camping impacts on public paths, sidewalks, rights of way, garages, bus stops, those sorts of areas,” said Deputy City Manager Robert Barr at the meeting.
That tool is arresting people.
The changes would make it easier for Juneau Police Department officers to arrest people who are obstructing public spaces by camping.
The proposed disorderly conduct code change would add standing, walking or camping to the list of actions that could prompt an arrest if someone is blocking public areas. It also adds public paths, parking lots and garages and stairwells to the list of locations it applies to.
Barr said that right now, arresting people without housing in these specific situations is complicated. Most of the time, officers arrest people for trespassing instead of disorderly conduct. But that requires additional steps.
“It is simply more challenging, takes more time, is more burdensome,” he said.
Barr said the amendments would essentially get rid of some of those hurdles to arrest people.
Assembly Members also moved forward with a plan to draft an ordinance to establish a “shelter safety zone” surrounding the Teal Street neighborhood and Juneau’s Glory Hall homeless shelter after repeated reports of staff being threatened on the site.
But the proposed ordinance is still very preliminary. Details like the potential boundary of the area and what protections would be in place have not yet been decided.
Assembly member Ella Adkison reluctantly agreed to move forward with the changes, but said they’re merely a stopgap for a larger issue.
“It’s not going to make the core of the issue any better. I do not think it will in any way help our unhoused population,” she said. “What I see the use for this is to make it a little easier for our police department to do something they’re already doing.”
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities can ban people from sleeping and camping in public places. Right now, Juneau city policy allows for dispersed camping but prohibits it on places like sidewalks or roads. In general, the city allows people to camp on unimproved public land as long as they keep their impact low on the surrounding community.
However, Assembly member Wade Bryson said he thinks the city’s current status quo is not working and it’s putting people at risk. He said the Assembly needs to take action.
“The sooner we get tough on this situation, the sooner we crack down or the sooner we say this is how you have to behave in our community, the sooner we will have less of these problems,” he said.
Assembly members also briefly discussed reestablishing a summer campground designated for people without housing, like the one the city closed last year, but that idea didn’t move forward. The city closed the campground after an increase in reported illegal activities and complaints from the surrounding neighborhoods.
Assembly members will take public testimony and vote on the proposed code changes at a regular meeting later this summer.
