Anti-camping ordinance

Supported the ordinance as necessary to protect parks and sidewalks but urged that ARPA Navigation Center funding deliver actual beds and that the city enforce against absentee property owners.

Urged the council not to pass the ordinance, arguing it doesn't address root causes and pointing to Vienna's housing model.

Strongly opposed, reading the ordinance's distance restrictions and asking where unhoused people are supposed to go.

Shared personal experience of homelessness, calling criminalization of unhoused people eugenics and citing racial disparities in shelter data.

Asked the council to explain what alternatives will exist for unhoused people and urged safe parking and sanitation investment.

Urged housing-first solutions over criminalization: 'our success should be measured by how many people we house.'

A former unhoused resident and CO organizer, opposed the ordinance and asked that unhoused people be included in solutions conversations.

ACLU legal extern speaking on Zoom; opposed the ordinance, citing full shelter capacity in the county and no deterrent effect when people have no choice.