During their weekly meeting, Bozeman city commissioners approved, in a 3-2 vote, new restrictions on urban camping. Commissioners Emma Bode and Joey Morrison opposed.
The new ordinance would prohibit camping on public streets with misdemeanor penalties, effective November 22. Interim City Manager Chuck Winn said Bozeman is the only place in the county that has allowed camping on public streets.
“This ordinance is not designed to address homelessness, it is designed to protect a public asset,” Winn said.
While the city expects to see a decrease to the approximately 130 vehicles in the streets, camping will not entirely disappear. The new ordinance also establishes a $25 monthly permit system for persons experiencing homelessness who comply with regulations to camp in the right of way.
Neighborhood Services Manager Ben Bailey said many people on the street were interested in a permit system.
“People just kind of lit up about that because that means that they're validated in their position and where they're at and it gives them some kind of ownership of having this permit,” Bailey said.
The permit system would end in one year. The city believes the permit system will help city staff better connect people on the streets with services that can help them longer term and provide a practical safety application as a defacto address for emergency services.
Andrew Kranker, who had been homeless for 3 years, said the permit system is another barrier.
“I understand the importance now of what $25 means to me it is the literal difference between me eating today or not or being able to share with someone else who needs it more than me,” Kranker said.
Other residents think the ordinance doesn’t go far enough and urged the commission to not allow any permitted camping.
City Attorney Anna Saverud say’s the new ordinance is meant to be a compromise.
“This is threading the needle of a little bit of what everyone wants and no one is going to be happy with it and we get that. We are trying to …increase restrictions on the right of way while being compassionate and allowing people to stay out there while prohibiting camping while increasing penalties and having having a little bit of all, but just this is the best attempt to thread that needle,” Saverud said.
The city says it’s meant to provide consequences for people who are blatantly breaking the rules, for example those illicitly discharging sewage into waterways or companies who facilitate workforce housing on the right of way would be fined $500 a day.
