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“As of now we have nine camps in the city,” Portsmouth City Code Enforcement Officer Andy Gedeon is alarmed about what he calls a “dramatic increase” in the number of people living in tents throughout the city. We’ve reported countless times about sanitary issues, violence, fires, drug use, and other problems related to these camps.
Now, the Portsmouth City Council has to change the rules to make it illegal to set up tents inside the city.
Council took the matter up at the City Manager’s Meeting. City Manager Sam Sutherland said, “Code enforcement is seeing an issue with a lot of debris and trash. Homeless folks are vacating their area and moving from place to place. It is a problem, and we know it’s a problem.”
As an example, Sutherland cited conditions under the Young Street Overpass. “Two summers ago, we took out 600 tons of trash. We had social workers up there trying to work with the folks that lived there. We’re not bringing this out to be cruel or try to criminalize people.” Sutherland said both he and Code Enforcement Officer Any Gedeon were well aware there were no easy solutions to the issue.
Council Vice President Lyvette Barnes-Mosely mentioned a homeless gentleman who frequents the area around Burger King. She said she’d stopped and reminded him that he needed to clean up after himself if he planned to camp there. She said the man promised that he would. However, she said on multiple occasions she’s stopped and cleaned up the trash he left behind herself.
Mayor Charlotte Gordon said that in addition to major encampments under the overpass and down by the river, there were also campers scattered throughout Portsmouth neighborhoods. “I know that on Fourth Street there are homeowners who believe a homeowner is renting space in their yard to people. There’s no running water, so these people are going to the bathroom in a five-gallon bucket and it gets dumped in the alley. These neighbors are concerned about the spread of disease. It’s a safety issue.”
Gordon said the proposed ordinance would also prevent people from living in garages, sheds, or other structures without running water.
Andy Gedeon spoke out at the meeting about questions people have asked him about the issue. He emphasized this would only ban living in a tent if it caused a nuisance; and said he wanted more clarification about what would constitute a nuisance. “Is it playing your guitar too loud or emptying a slop bucket of poop?” Gedeon said he would discourage waiving the three readings and felt any such legislation should go through the full process with council members. “I think it would be good to have time to move in the right direction.” He also emphasized this law would not ban people from camping out in their back yards.
Gedeon also mentioned that homeless people had set the overpass on fire multiple times, costing the city a great deal of money.
Gedeon said the goal is not to just remove people, the plan is to work with people and find them housing. He said that people living in tents already violates state laws requiring minimum living standards. Those include running water, electricity, and be able to maintain the temperature in living quarters at 68 degrees.
“We’re looking at hundreds of tons of solid waste. We’re looking at human waste, and other safety issues. I’ve been attacked by these people. People have attempted to stab me multiple times.”
He said he’d like to form a group that goes out and offer assistance to the homeless.
The Portsmouth City Solicitor brought up the recent Supreme Court ruling that said towns have the right to remove people camping on public property.
Council members seemed hesitant to pass any legislation before putting other protections in place to assist the homeless. It was suggested that city would first need to repeal its ban on new drug treatment facilities in order to allow new facilities to open up to assist the homeless.
Council members chose to table the matter and bring it back to the table in the New Year on January 13.