City targets camps

Homeless people who are camping on private property, sometimes without the knowledge of the property's owners, are dumping trash, defecating on the ground and starting dangerous fires to keep warm, Shelton Police Chief Carole Beason on March 22 told the Shelton City Council.

Property owners would be responsible for the cleanup under a proposed ordinance the chief and council members discussed at the work session. Failing to clean up the messes would be a misdemeanor offense, and repeat violations could lead the city to place a lien on the property.

The proposed ordinance "gives us another tool to be able to hold property owners accountable for what is going on on their property," Beason said.

Some property owners don't know that people have set up camp on their land and "making makeshift facilities for themselves, there's a lot of trash, a lot of debris, and we also have other crimes being committed on some of the properties," the chief said.

The council is tentatively set to address the proposed ordinance on the city council's business agenda at its April 19 meeting, and the action agenda on May 3.

Under the proposed ordinance, a city code officer would first contact the property owner to tell them there is a nuisance problem. The property would be cleaned up, but if the property is not secured, homeless campers might return, Beason said.

Council members stressed they are not trying to harm homeless people.

"We're not making it illegal, necessarily, to have unhoused people in the city limits, or an organized encampment," said council member Joe Schmit said. "We're simply saying it needs to be a managed thing, that is permitted, and there is a process to go through within the city to do that in a legal way."

Council member James Boad said he agrees.

"We're not criminalizing homelessness," he said. "We're establishing guidelines and rules."

Mayor Eric Onisko said he has "no problem" with the proposed ordinance, except that it might not be fair to property owners where the homeless keep setting up camp again after the property is cleaned up, such as the woods along the railroad track across the road from the Shelton Yacht Club on state Route 3.

"We can't ask someone to secure a 5-acre parcel with fencing they'll climb over anyway," he said.

Beason said property owners could make their land "less desirable" to campers, such as removing trees to create greater visibility. The city has suggestions in a plan called "crime prevention through environmental design," she said.

The proposed ordinance was designed to regulate homeless encampments churches might want on their property. But the council members suggested that the language be broadened to include all local groups.