Bill banning unauthorized camping passes committee despite questions on enforcement

Community members, homeless shelter operators and city officials gathered Thursday to voice their opinions on a bill looking to prevent the formation of homeless encampments in Idaho. Though the bill has already passed House’s State Affairs Committee, some logistical concerns pertaining to the bill were left unanswered after the provided testimony. Thursday’s public hearing concerned Idaho Senate Bill 1141 that seeks to ban unauthorized public camping or sleeping on public property for Idaho cities with populations exceeding 100,000.

If passed, the Idaho attorney general would be able to seek a court order against cities and countywide highway districts for knowing violations of the bill, which would carry a civil penalty of “not more than $10,000” for each offense, according to an amended version of the bill. Sen. Codi Galloway, R-Boise, who sponsored the bill, said it would not be prohibiting overnight camping entirely.



According to the bill, overnight camping would continue to be allowed at recreational or educational areas intended for camping, at temporary events, at Idaho rest areas or at private businesses that allow it. “It ensures authorized specific temporary events and activities can still occur,” Galloway said. “4-H kids can camp at the fair to watch over their animals.

Family reunions can meet in city parks. And long haul truckers can take a nap.” While the bill has a carve-out that unauthorized lodging must be for a “prolonged amount of time,” a qualifier that Galloway said would prevent anyone from having problems if merely “taking a nap in the park,” the bill’s text does not provide a quantifiable measure for how this could be interpreted.

This was a key point of concern for a Rep. Todd Achilles, D-Boise, a member of the House State Affairs committee who questioned whether there was an objective measure of “prolonged” that the bill was operating under. Galloway did not provide an explicit definition during the hearing as to how “prolonged” should be interpreted.

Galloway did, however, reassure that criminalizing homelessness was not an aspect of the bill. Repercussions for failing to comply with the bill would theoretically only be levied by the attorney general against large cities in Idaho, but Boise Police Chief Chris Dennison raised concerns about the enforcement mechanism cities would use to avoid facing civil penalties. The city of Boise already has individuals tasked with maintaining code compliance who can connect people camping in unauthorized spaces with shelter resources in the community and clean up a campsite if no one is present.

In cases where camped individuals were to refuse to comply, law enforcement would need to intervene, Dennison said. “When we have somebody who will not engage with those folks, it’s going to be the police that are called to deal with it,” Dennison said, adding that the bill would likely remove the ability for officers to take differing enforcement actions on a case-by-case basis to ensure compliance with the bill is maintained. “Let’s say they move 500 feet and somebody asked them to move 500 feet (again),” Dennison said.

“Have we in the city still enabled and/or permitted camping to occur? So to ensure that we’re not enabling and/or permitting people to engage in camping by maybe moving along ...

we’d have to take some form of enforcement measure to make sure ...

that we’re not enabling or permitting that to occur.” Since the Legislature’s bill does not have a timeline stipulation — compared to the city which enforces a public camping ban from sunset to sunrise — the bill would effectively “require 24/7 heightened enforcement by law enforcement in order to demonstrate that we are complying,” city of Boise Director of Policy and Government Affairs Kathy Griesmyer said. “This would require law enforcement to come arrest an individual, arrest a parent, put a child in foster care because we have to do that in order to avoid litigation,” Griesmyer said.

She added the city of Boise already has already had an ordinance against camping in public spaces that has been in place since 1993. After the city was sued in 2018 by six individuals experiencing homelessness, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that individuals could not be criminalized for sleeping on public property outside if no alternative shelter is available, a decision the city recognizes as part of a standing legal agreement, Griesmyer said. The city continues to enforce it’s no-camping ordinance and, in the last year, arrested six individuals who were choosing to camp outside at night when shelter space was available, Griesmyer said.

Both the Boise Rescue Mission and Interfaith Sanctuary provided testimony Thursday and presented differing positions on the legislation. Rev. Bill Roscoe, president of Boise Rescue Mission, spoke in support of the bill and said his position was grounded in the health and safety of the people who sleep outside and face dangers posed by improper shelter and inadequate attire to brave the elements at night.

”I really would hope that this would inspire city governments to take charge of their cities and to address these problems when they’re first brought up by the community ...

and put an end to it before it gets to be Sacramento, (Los Angeles), Portland and Seattle.” Interfaith Sanctuary Executive Director Jodi Peterson-Stigers provided a differing position, arguing against the bill banning public camping as well as Senate Bill 1166 (which the Boise Rescue Mission also opposed in an emailed news release) that is seeking to prevent homeless shelters from operating within 300 feet of any residential areas. The combination of these bills, Peterson-Stigers said, would reduce the shelter capacities of homeless organizations, force people onto the street and make Boise look more like the cities characterized by homeless encampments that legislators are looking to avoid.

A representative of the Veterans Park Neighborhood Association — which has been opposed to Interfaith Sanctuary’s relocation to a new State Street location — offered support for the bill on behalf of the association. ”This bill means our citizens will be able to rely on enforcement actions being available when impacts associated with public camping occur,” Katy Decker, president of VPNA, said. At the close of the hearing, Achilles continued to express concern about whether or not homelessness is being criminalized in the bill.

”While we’re trying to say this doesn’t criminalize homelessness, you’re forcing the cities with a $10,000 bounty to make a decision,” Achilles said, referring to the fine cities could be subjected to for non-compliance. “What are the cities going to do? They’re going to have to step in.” In a 13-2 vote with Achilles and Rep.

Brooke Green, D-Boise, dissenting, the bill will now undergo a second reading after passing out of committee..