Urban camping regulations for homeless delayed

Now that more than 30 wooden sleeping boxes have been removed from downtown Tucson sidewalks, the city is slowing its timetable for adopting a new urban-camping ordinance.

A draft ordinance was scheduled for a vote at the City Council consideration Tuesday evening, but Councilman Steve Kozachik removed it from the agenda late in the afternoon.

“I want to do it right, not quickly,” he said.

Kozachik said he will take the time to talk to social services about the policy idea before bringing it back to council.

Interim City Manager Martha Durkin said she met this week with government agencies and social services about a broader strategy to address homelessness. It involves triaging services to make sure the neediest receive help and better coordinating resources.

The draft ordinance, modeled on a policy in Denver, would have prohibited camping in a tent or box on the sidewalk, alley or other city property. Camping in a park is already prohibited.

It also would have prohibited storing a bedroll or other camping supplies on the sidewalk.

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The ordinance would have required police officers to give warnings and connect homeless people with services before considering citations. Violations would be misdemeanors.

It also would have allowed the city manager to authorize camping on certain public property, so the city could have some say in things like making sure the camp organizers provide bathrooms.

An organizer of the downtown homeless camp, dubbed Safe Park, said the rules would leave no place where homeless people could legally sleep outside. “It would have systematically validated what we’ve said from the get-go — that it’s a crime to be homeless in the city of Tucson,” said organizer Jon McLane.

In a memo to the council, Durkin said the ordinance “plainly states that homelessness is not a crime, and only the conduct of camping, and not the status of homelessness, is prohibited by the code.”

In other action, the City Council gave its final approval to a package of tax incentives for Massachusetts-based HomeGoods, which wants to build a distribution center here.

City and county incentives, including a payment in lieu of taxes incentive and a jobs incentive, are worth more than $1.5 million in tax breaks in the first year. The company says it will bring up to 900 jobs to Tucson.