MENTOR, Ohio — Following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on how the Eighth Amendment does not prohibit cities from criminalizing sleeping outdoors, the City of Mentor unanimously passed an ordinance prohibiting camping on publicly owned land and right of way.
Ordinance No. 24-O-058 defines "camp" as the act of placing bedding or any materials used for bedding purposes.
Not only are bedding materials banned from publicly owned land, but so are food preparation and/or any other activities of living.
“This isn’t an anti-anyone ordinance. This is just to address specific behaviors where frankly they will do more harm than good and in fact place persons in dangers,” the City of Mentor Law Director, Joseph Szeman, said at a recent City Council meeting.
Szeman admitted during the meeting that Mentor was not “confronted” with the problems of homeless encampments.
“This is to address camping and food preparation and other activities in areas which it’s not safe; certainly, the areas that are not designed or outfitted for that conduct,” he added.
An exception was built into the ordinance. It states a person may violate the ordinance as a “direct and immediate response to a bona fide emergency.”
“Emergency” is defined as an unforeseeable act that results in the person having to take immediate, temporary action to preserve their safety.
However, that exception has an expiration date of 48 hours. After that, the individual is open to charges.
The first violation of this ordinance equals a minor misdemeanor. The second offense will result in a misdemeanor of the fourth degree, and the third or subsequent offense will result in a misdemeanor of the second degree.
“We're never going to criminalize ourselves or incarcerate ourselves out of homelessness,” the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless Executive Director Chris Knestrick told News 5.
He said this ordinance may look like it’s solving homelessness, but it’s actually making it worse.
“When we arrest people or ticket people for simply trying to exist in our society without a house, what we're doing is making it harder and harder for individuals to get access to housing, affordable housing. We know in this work that criminal backgrounds are a huge barrier for people. We're just exasperating the problem,” he said.
Knestrick’s organization, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, provides direct street outreach services to individuals sleeping outside. It’s coupled with advocacy meant to “break down barriers.”
“Shelter is a solution for people but there's so many different reasons why people don't want to go to a shelter or are unable to go to a shelter. A military veteran that has severe PTSD has to live outside because they can't be in a room with 400 other people and need the ability to control their surroundings,” Knestrick explained. “We see folks that have traumatic backgrounds that need to be in control of their environment more. People sleep where they feel safest when they're experiencing homelessness and sometimes that can be in public spaces.”
He believes ordinances as such only serve to solve “political problems,” and not real issues.
“For us, they are real human beings that are suffering and living in crisis that need to be served and taken care of as a community,” Knestrick said.
Knestrick explained that further conversation is needed and that the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless will be part of it.
The ordinance unanimously passed the City of Mentor’s City Council meeting on August 20. It’s in effect now.
News 5 reached out to the Mentor City Council president as well as its law director several times for a one-on-one interview but never heard back.
The federal case setting precedent for ordinances as such is Johnson v. Grants Pass.
