Salt Lake City's proposed camping ban draws fierce debate

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Salt Lake City debates a proposed ordinance tightening camping restrictions on public property.
• Critics argue it criminalizes homelessness while supporters cite safety concerns.
• City Council could vote as early as May 19; discussions highlight complex homelessness and safety issues.

SALT LAKE CITY — Dozens burned the midnight oil, staying late Tuesday night to voice their concerns about a proposed Salt Lake City ordinance that would tighten camping restrictions in Utah's capital city.

Many spoke in favor of the measure in a public hearing that lasted nearly three hours, generating insults, rants and tears.

"We have our work cut out for us," said Salt Lake City Councilman Chris Wharton, summarizing the situation after the lengthy and passionate debate.

What the city is proposing

Overnight camping in public parks and streets is already illegal in Salt Lake City, but the proposed ordinance would extend that prohibition to other public properties, such as sidewalks and park strips. It would also apply to people camping in vehicles — something city officials say has become a growing problem.

"(The existing ordinance) did not necessarily envision people living in vehicles full time ... or the number of people without housing finding places to sleep at night, so we tried to update this to reflect the new reality," said Andrew Johnston, Salt Lake City's director of homeless policy and outreach, during a presentation last month.

The measure would also prohibit anyone from leaving personal property in an area closed to the public. It would establish a process to remove encampments and personal property from public property for the "health, safety and welfare" of residents and visitors.

There would be a few exceptions, such as permission from a property owner or in areas along the route within 24 hours of a permitted parade, like the annual Days of '47 Pioneer Day parade. The mayor could also declare a local emergency to allow some camping, if necessary.

A divided room

Seventy-eight people signed up to deliver public comment in-person or online, marking one of the strongest turnouts in recent history. Most items in front of the City Council only generate a few comments at best, and Tuesday's crowd filled both the council chamber and its overflow room.

Many in opposition feared that the measure criminalizes homelessness and only introduces new hurdles for people seeking to get their lives back on track. They believe the measure unfairly characterizes unhoused people as the problem for safety concerns in the city.

Several people spoke about their past or existing hardships dealing with homelessness, or having loved ones who struggled with being unhoused.

Living in a vehicle can be the last step from living on the street or the first step out of it, said Pastor Shawn Clay, director of the Salt Lake City Mission, noting that he once lived in his car as he dealt with homelessness. Those options were also safer than sleeping on a sidewalk, in a tent or in a shelter.

"We can't criminalize homelessness. We can't criminalize people who are living in their car because they're in a situation," he said. "We are Utahns, and we are Salt Lakers, and we can do better than this."

Lyla Burrough said the city lacks mental health or drug abuse resources, and the ordinance wouldn't change that issue, before she broke into tears as she described the struggles her uncle experienced while homeless before he died at 25.

"Unsheltered people ... are experiencing what most of us can never live through. They are in a place where humanity should exist more than ever," added Lily Burrough, essentially finishing her sister's remarks. "If this law moves forward, you will ruin many lives."

On the other hand, residents have long called for safety improvements at parks, trails and streets, Salt Lake City police said. Many who support the measure pointed to these challenges.

"We've been approached by individuals on multiple occasions and ... they've been very threatening at times," said Quentin Nolan, a recent Salt Lake City transplant, saying he doesn't feel comfortable about his loved ones visiting various parks in the city.

Safety concerns can go both ways, said Amy Hawkins, chair of the Ballpark Neighborhood Council, as she pointed to a recent example of someone who was killed in her neighborhood.

"Camping is not always safe for people experiencing homelessness. We need some tools to help," she said.

Handling a complex issue

The challenge at hand is that many people want to comply with the law but aren't able to because of their living situation. At the same time, some people exploit the existing laws to perpetuate crimes tied to drugs and sex trafficking, Wharton explained.

He points out that the city can't raise living wages and can only provide incentives for affordable housing, along with other levers that could help address the underlying causes of the situation. Addressing homelessness issues is shared among federal, state, county, and municipal entities, and the state has struggled to move forward with "human-centered solutions," Councilwoman Victoria Petro asserted at the end of the hearing.

She believes the city has been unofficially tasked with handling a health and human services-related situation when it is only designed to be the "safety backstop" in the process. Addressing this issue may require creativity, she added.

"We have to have some basic parameters on how we're going to interact with each other and what we're going to do in what place. Never should those parameters deprive someone of basic human dignity," she said. "I don't believe that is the intention here, but because of the material differences in what partners are doing or not doing, and the way things are shaking out for me, I'm going to be looking for some other things to be in place before I'll move forward on an ordinance like this."

But the City Council is well aware of the safety concerns that prompted the proposal, too. It is tentatively slated to vote on the measure on May 19, but that could change as it weighs both sides of the argument.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Related topics

Utah homelessnessUtahPoliticsSalt Lake CountyPolice & Courts

Carter Williams

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Carter Williams is a reporter for KSL. He covers Salt Lake City, statewide transportation issues, outdoors, the environment and weather. He is a graduate of Southern Utah University.