NC House approves camping ban bill despite concerns about costs, criminalizing homelessness
Opponents of a bill that would ban unauthorized camping and sleeping on public property took one last, unsuccessful swing Wednesday to prevent House approval of legislation critics contend will criminalize homelessness.
In the end, the House voted 69-42, largely along partisan lines with Republicans voting in favor of sending House Bill 781 to the Senate just ahead of Thursday's crossover deadline, after which only bills that have passed at least one chamber can be considered.
HB 781 would allow local governments by 'majority vote' to designate local government-owned property located within its jurisdiction to be used for a 'continuous period of up to one year for public camping or sleeping purposes.' Local governments can renew the one-year period.
Rep. Brian Biggs (R-Randolph) pushed back against claims that HB 781 criminalizes homelessness while introducing the bill.
'This bill does not criminalize homelessness,' Biggs insisted. 'It addresses unauthorized public property camping and sleeping without prohibiting homelessness itself.'
Biggs has said the HB 781 grew out of conversations with municipal leaders who asked for guidance around handling the state's growing homeless crisis. He said the state can no longer wait to address the problem.
Total homelessness across the state jumped 19% to 11,626 in 2024, according to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report documenting homelessness in America. That was 1,872 more homeless people than the 9,754 counted in 2023.
'Some people want to kick it down the road two years, five years, but how long are we going to wait until we deal with our homeless population in our own house,' Biggs said. 'We need to deal with it now. We need to give guidance.'
Under HB 781, local governments would also be responsible for ensuring safety, maintaining sanitation, policing illegal substance use and alcohol use and coordinating with health departments to provide behavioral health services at designated sites.
The HB 781 debate was collegial. Some bill opponents thanked Biggs for taking on a difficult issue that has vexed cities and towns.
'It [HB 781] falls short in a lot of ways, but it took an act of courage to actually put it out there,' said Rep. Laura Budd (D-Mecklenburg). 'Maybe this is a solution we should consider because doing nothing is not an option. The solutions we're currently trying to employ in our communities across the state are either ineffectual or not meeting the needs of those they are seeking to house.'
Budd, however, said she could not vote for the bill because it's tantamount to an unfunded mandate that would create financial and strategic hardships for local governments.
'We cannot ask our local governments to foot this bill because when we do that, you know where they get the money, they get it out of the pockets of taxpayers living in their communities and most of those citizens can't afford that either,' Budd said.
Rep. Abe Jones (D-Wake) agreed the state should provide local governments with financial assistance if HB 781 is approved.
'I think we're going to have to put our money where our mouths are, otherwise, we would be just as guilty as the feds who do this all time; shove it down the line, beat their chest, act as though they did something and they're sending us no money,' Jones said.
Rep. Jordan Lopez (D-Mecklenburg) spoke forcibly against the bill, contending it would criminalize homelessness.
'It's not a misconception that House Bill 781 will require local governments to not only punish those that are unhoused, but in a state where affordable housing remains increasingly harder to find, it's contributing to a rising homeless rate, basically requires local governments to push away or outright hide unhoused people as well,' Lopez said.
Rep. Sarah Stevens (R-Surry) reminded colleagues of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 ruling in the case of Grants Pass v. Johnson that there is 'no specific right to housing on public property.' The Court ruled that cities can punish unhoused individuals for sleeping outside in public even if they have nowhere else to go.
'It [the Court decision] said there's no constitutional right to living on a public park, a public property, so this does encompasses that and said you don't have the right to live on public property but if a city or county wishes to establish a place for people to live, they need to at least provide sanitation, they need to provide a space and give them some guidelines,' Stevens said.
After the Court ruling, Grants Pass designated camps for people experiencing homelessness. City policy restricts camping to specific locations.
Stevens argued that HB 781 is not an unfunded mandate because the problem of homelessness already exists.
'This is an attempt to start moving forward and getting the cities and counties to say, 'Yes, this is an issue and we're going to deal with it,'' Stevens said. 'We didn't create the problem on the state level, so it's not up to us to fix it. Each of the cities and counties are going to have to do their own thing.'
Rep. Deb Butler (D-New Hanover) questioned a provision in the bill that prohibits selected sites from negatively affecting property values of neighboring properties.
'Well, who's going to determine that?' Butler asked. 'Who's going to do the valuations?'
Like other bill opponents, Butler thanked Biggs for taking on a challenging subject but said HB 781 leaves her with more questions than answers.
'You [Biggs] are well intentioned with this bill, but I think homelessness, being unhoused, is a very tough issue and people in that advocacy space have been trying to figure it out,' Butler said. 'Until we can figure it out, and until we commit the dollars and resources to solve some of the underlying challenges, I don't think we're going to get there, and I think this bill is going to impede our progress on tackling homelessness.'
Lawmakers' concerns about HB 781 largely mirrored those that have been expressed by advocates for people experiencing homelessness.
'Absent state fiscal support, the NC bill diminishes local autonomy while making cities and counties both fiscally responsible and legally liable for the implementation of state-sanctioned encampment policies,' the NC Coalition to End Homelessness [NCCEH] said in a statement earlier this week.
The NCCEH also expressed concern that the bill is being pushed by the Cicero Institute, a conservative think tank, that has led efforts to pass similar legislation in Arizona, Missouri, Tennessee, Iowa, Georgia, Florida, Wisconsin and Kentucky.
The institute was founded by tech-industry capitalist Joe Lonsdale, who is critical of the 'housing first' approach to ending homelessness. That model prioritizes providing individuals and families with permanent, affordable housing as the first step in ending their plight.
'While Cicero describes itself as a think tank, its policies promote industries that potentially profit from criminalizing poverty,' said Dr. Latonya Agard, executive director of NCCEH. 'States that adopted Cicero laws find they are funneling more public money into incarceration, so while these bills could lead to the financial enrichment of out-of-state investors of privatized jails and prisons and monitoring technologies, they will worsen conditions for North Carolinians without housing.'
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