Homeless people and others found sleeping on public benches, sidewalks, streets and alleyways – or in a doorway to a public or private property abutting a public sidewalk – could face criminal charges under an ordinance approved Monday night by the Newark City Council.

The legislation, formally known as Ordinance 24-36, will officially take effect 30 days after the near-unanimous vote that occurred during the Oct. 21 city council meeting. 

A first offense under the ordinance that refers to “prohibited camping” would be considered a minor misdemeanor, and anyone found guilty could be sentenced to a fine of up to $150. 

Any subsequent violations – including a second or third time found sleeping on a bench or in a doorway – would be considered fourth-degree misdemeanors punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $250 for each offense.

The vote comes after three prior contentious meetings: The first, on Sept. 4, brought nearly 100 people to council chambers to oppose the legislation during a safety committee meeting; The safety committee opted to send the legislation to the full council during the second meeting on Sept. 26; the third meeting, on Oct. 7, was the first time the ordinance was read to full council. 

Each saw myriad public members coming out to voice their opinions, and Monday’s meeting was no different. Dozens of people gathered at the Newark Municipal Building. There was a tangible stress in the air, like the room was collectively clenching its teeth.

At Monday’s meeting, 23 members of the public offer testimony about the ordinance, with 19 of those people speaking in opposition to it. Public comment on the legislation was limited to two minutes per speaker — atypical for Newark City Council meetings, where public commenters are usually granted three minutes. 

“It’s going to be an embarrassment to the city council. Mayor, it’s going to be an embarrassment to you, because you’re the leader,” said John LaBelle, president of St. Vincent de Paul Society at St. Leonard’s Church in Heath. “This is cruel. It’s not healthy for the community. It’s not healthy for the city.”

Deb Dingus, executive director of the United Way of Licking County, invites council members and others to a community discussion on housing on Oct. 29. Credit: Jack Shuler

Deb Dingus, executive director of the United Way of Licking County, invited those attending the council meeting to a community discussion about homelessness and housing at 6 p.m. on Oct. 29 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel at 50 N. Second Street in Newark, and said she’s convinced the community can find a creative solution.

A few people in attendance at the meeting spoke in favor of the ordinance, citing public safety concerns and trash accumulation at encampments. Although the vast majority of public comments throughout the ordinance review process opposed the legislation, Newark City Council members said they received “countless” calls in support of the bill. 

At-large Council Member Bill Cost Jr. was the lone voice on council who spoke against the ordinance, while councilmembers Michael Houser, Beth Bline, Mark Labutis, Spencer Barker and Doug Marmie voiced support for the ordinance before and after the vote, calling it “another tool in the toolbox” for law enforcement officers.

Barker, appointed to Newark City Council in September, told attendees that “this vote is not one that any of us take lightly,” while Marmie pointed to historically controversial legislation that generated significant pushback that the council dealt with in the past, including ordinances related to property maintenance and a smoking ban. 

“In my tenure, there’s been two other topics that [generated similar levels of public discussion],” Marmie added. “Both of them have fared pretty well since then, even though it was heavily debated.” 

Of the ten council members, Cost was the only one to vote in opposition of the legislation, while Houser, Bline, Jeff Rath, Labutis, Barker, Marmie and Colton Rine voted in favor of it. At-large Council members Bradley Chute and Dustin Neely were absent from the meeting, though voiced support for the ordinance during the Oct. 7 session. 

“I’ve been against the whole thing from day one,” Cost said following the vote. “I don’t think jail is the correct solution and I’m hoping we can work toward finding better solutions with the non-profits and social services we have in this town. I’m hoping they can work together and we can find a better way of doing things. My next step will be at that meeting on the 29th.”

Tricia Moore, the city’s law director, agrees with Cost that jail time is not a solution to homelessness in Newark, and acknowledges the situation’s complexity.

“My goal is not convictions, my goal is services,” said Moore. “I want there not to be anybody for me to prosecute. Convictions don’t help.”

The public had a wide array of reactions to the verdict.

“They’re just opening us up for lawsuits,” said Newark resident David Trubee Jr. “And who’s going to float the bill? It’d be us taxpayers floating the bill. I’d like to see every one of them, all the way up to the Mayor, resign. They work for us, we don’t work for them.”

Brandon Myers — who owns and operates Real Rescue Tree Experts, a company that manages environmental hazards and also hosts a ministry that targets social issues like substance abuse, homelessness and child trafficking, according to the organization’s website — is glad the council passed the ordinance, but says it needs to be handled with care. 

“The last thing we need is another law that nobody is going to enforce,” Myers said. “The community is over [public camping]. 

Myers wasn’t alone in his support. 

“I wanted them to adopt the legislation,” said former Clerk of Council Janine Paul of Newark. “It’s about the safety of the citizens in the city. I understand there’s a homeless issue and there’s things that need to be done about that, but the rest of the citizens of the city need to feel safe too.”

Other Newark leadership weighed in after the ruling as well. Newark Mayor Jeff Hall expressed his initial approval and subsequent hopes for the ordinance. Hall also shared that he does not see this legislation as a response to homelessness.

“I saw its worthiness,” said Newark Mayor Jeff Hall. “I think truly there was a lot of confusion as to what it was and wasn’t. The last thing we want to do is what someone accused the city of going to do, which is arrest everyone who is homeless. You can take the homeless piece clear out of it, that isn’t really what it’s about.”

Bline spoke to The Reporting Project after voting in favor of the ordinance, citing the number of worried citizens who had spoken to her privately about fearing for their well-being and personal safety around  unhoused people.

“I met with people in their driveways, I met with them in their living rooms, and no one likes this problem at all, but at the same time, they have to be safe,” said Bline. “This is not a solution [to homelessness]. This [ordinance] is security and safety.

“To Councilman Marmie’s comment that presently, if someone wants to camp on the grassy space between the street and your house, they can and nothing will happen,” Bline continued, citing non-descript cases where tents were pitched in the Devil Strip between someone’s yard and the road in Newark. 

Bline said the ordinance will be a boon for safety forces, including local police and fire departments, but also said more work needs to be done to address homelessness in the city. 

Moore agreed with Bline’s sentiment, noting the work that still needs to be done before the ordinance goes into law in 30 days time. 

“In the meantime, myself and the judge that will hopefully be running this docket will sit down and make a list of service providers that we want to be part of the docket we’re trying to run,” said Moore. “[We will] have them come to the table and explain what our vision is and see what services they can bring to the table.”

A U.S. Supreme Court decision issued on June 28 allows cities to make it illegal to sleep or camp on public property, and that ruling gave a green light to cities across the country to approve such ordinances.

With the adoption of this ordinance, Newark joins New Philadelphia, in Tuscarawas County, and Mentor, in Lake County, as Ohio cities that have voted to make sleeping in public a crime – what some Newark meeting attendees called “possession of a pillow with intent to sleep.” 

The June Supreme Court ruling allows cities to make it illegal to sleep or camp on public property. The case originated in Grants Pass, a city of about 38,000 people in southwestern Oregon – a city where about 600 people are homeless on any given day, and where the city was challenged in court for passing a law to make it illegal to camp or sleep on public property.

Advocates for homeless people filed a lawsuit against the city challenging the law and eventually lost that fight in the Supreme Court.

“Johnson v. Grants Pass is a court case originally filed in 2018 that determined it is cruel and unusual punishment to arrest or ticket people for sleeping outside when they have no other safe place to go,” says the National Homelessness Law Center on its website about the case. “The case started in Grants Pass, Oregon, when the city began issuing tickets to people sleeping in public, even when there were not enough safe, accessible shelter beds.

“Grants Pass, like many cities in America, is thousands of housing units short of what is needed,” says the law center, based in Washington, D.C., which defended homeless people in the Supreme Court case. “That shortfall will not be solved by putting more people in jail or issuing more tickets. The solution to homelessness is safe, decent, and affordable housing for everybody.”

Noah Fishman writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.