Las Cruces needs an illegal camping ordinance

Municipalities around the country have enacted laws that generally ban illegal camping in public spaces, especially after the Supreme Court upheld the rights of Grants Pass, Oregon to restrict camping in public parks.

The contention of the suit was that the city had imposed cruel and unusual punishment on violators of the law. The Supreme Court ruled that the law didn’t specifically target homeless individuals, as it made camping in a public park illegal for anyone, and that imposing fines or jail time for violations of this law was no different than violations of any law.

In Las Cruces, an ordinance banning camping in public spaces could be specifically tailored for finite offenses. For example, an ordinance banning loitering for more than 12 hours within 50 feet of a play structure would go a long way to making our playgrounds safer for families to enjoy as they were intended.

Last year, the play structure at Pioneer Women’s Park received an upgrade. City officials were at hand to cut the ribbon and pat themselves on the back. One week later, a homeless man was living on the structure. This year, play equipment is strewn with needles and smeared with blood.

If you’re still reading, I commend you. Usually, discussions like this immediately devolve into assumptions that I want to criminalize homelessness. It is, apparently, a monstrous thing to question whether it is safe for families to enjoy a public space after or while drugs are being actively consumed in the same space.

But I want to dig deeper. Is it okay not to question whether we can have something safer for the person experiencing homelessness or consuming the drugs? Our knee-jerk reaction is to assume that something like this is only to benefit the taxpayers, while completely forgetting the person (and the demons they are fighting) at the center of the issue.

Let’s revisit the shopping cart ordinance that Las Cruces enacted two years ago. It was criticized as criminalizing homelessness. But how many homeless individuals went to jail in violation? That was never the intent – active engagement with law enforcement is a positive experience that can help a person struggling connect with services that can help them find a better way to live.

The same is true for a camping ordinance. Services exist. Las Cruces and New Mexico spend millions on homeless intervention, treatment and prevention. But the same deduction always arises – some folks want to live on the street. And that is fine, as long as they aren’t breaking any laws in doing so.

This ordinance isn’t for the friendly homeless guy who likes the outdoors and wants to be left alone. It would be for the drug addicts that take advantage of our compassion and take advantage of our fear so they can take over public spaces and have zero accountability.

The biggest question that arises in this discussion, all the way back to the original Grants Pass argument, is: where do they go? If you take away public spaces for camping, is there an alternative location that is deemed acceptable for camping? And the answer, as it relates to Las Cruces, is a resounding YES!

The city has hundreds of properties, both developed structures and undeveloped land, that can be dedicated for either outdoor camping in a controlled environment, or indoor emergency shelter space. For example, last month, the city purchased 911 W. Amador for $700,000, to be folded into the nearby Community of Hope campus. The building was cited as being the perfect place for warehouse space to store supplies and equipment.

But who are the supplies for? Why not use the space to house the people? Why do you need more storage space under the auspices of helping people, while letting the people remain on the streets in the throes of addiction and mental health crises?

Don’t criminalize homelessness. I agree, 100%. But allowing a person to destroy themselves with drugs is not compassion, that’s avoiding the problem in the name of compassion. Accountability and compassion can be two sides of the same coin. There is help available. Services abound.

Let’s get people the help they need by providing them with options that require them to be active participants in their recovery, rather than hiding under a play structure while our society dismisses them right alongside the uncomfortable conversations about how to help them.

Shawna Pfeiffer is a life-long Dona Ana County Resident, graduate of NMSU, small business owner, hobby farmer, dog-lover, outdoor enthusiast and mother to two young children. She can be reached at srpfeiffer1@gmail.com.