When Colorado Springs City Council voted last month to temporarily back away from a proposed tough new ban on car camping on public property both sides of the contentious issue were left to question next steps. In what was considered a surprising 5-4 vote, the council postponed for six months a d ecision on prohibiting camping in cars or other vehicles for more than 24 hours in one spot. Under the proposal, violators could face stiff penalties, including significant fines and potential jail sentences. The nine-member nonpartisan governing body that tends to rule with a conservative bent listened to how the ordinance would give police officers another tool to deal with offenders, some of whom have been known to park for days, weeks or months near local residences and businesses. From opponents of the car camping ban, council members heard most of the two-dozen who spoke object to what they view as “criminalizing homelessness.”  Many accused the community leaders of not being compassionate and caring enough to the plight of people who lack housing. Under the proposed ban, law enforcement also would have the authority to provide illegal campers with information on community assistance programs and potentially incentivize some to regain housing. As written, the proposal would streamline regulations and penalties for all illegal camping ordinances, as well. Several council members wondered whether kicking the recommendation down the road until May 12 would accomplish anything. The topic expanded, as another councilor questioned the city’s entire approach to solving homelessness, and others expressed frustration about what’s become a growing problem countywide. “Regardless of the outcome, my work was going to be the same: how do we connect people living in vehicles to services that get them out of their vehicles,” Aimee Cox, the city’s chief housing and homelessness response officer, told The Gazette last week. Camping ban backed by mayor, police chief Nancy Henjum, who made the motion to postpone, which passed on what she and others are calling a surprising 5-4 vote, said last week that she thought the presented ordinance was “done in a vacuum” and “siloed,” without input from organizations that provide services to prevent and overcome homelessness and city departments that do street outreach. She wants more information, discussion and options on the table. “I certainly didn’t plan to make a motion for postponement prior to the conversation on the dais, and so not having a chance to talk with council members in advance, I was somewhat thinking on my feet,” she said. Council member Dave Donelson introduced the drafted ordinance after receiving complaints from some residents. Speakers at the Nov. 10 meeting said the course of action was researched and vetted by the city attorney’s office and endorsed by Mayor Yemi Mobolade, Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez and Police Lt. Ryan Tetley, who oversees the police department’s teams that do street outreach, orchestrate camp cleanups, enforce city laws and patrol shopping districts. Donelson said he didn’t involve overnight shelters or other organizations in preparing the proposition because “it wasn’t creating some new big plan; it was simply creating a penalty for living in a vehicle.” Police now are restricted to levying a $50 parking fine to someone who lives in a car, truck or motorhome for more than three days in one place without then moving at least 100 feet away. That would change to vehicle campers being required to move their vehicle at least 1,000 feet away after spending 24 hours in one place or be cited. Tetley said police first give warnings to people violating such city ordinances, handle each case with compassion, hold off on issuing citations as long as they can and as a last resort use jail time as a way for people to rethink their situation and perhaps enter rehab or mental health treatment or make gains to become rehoused. Council President Lynette Crow-Iverson said in an email to The Gazette after the vote that the $2,500 fine and potential jail time felt punitive to her, which is why she voted to delay action. “I also questioned whether giving people just 24 hours to move 1,000 feet would truly be an effective tool for our police,” she said. “With response times already lagging due to our low staffing levels, I’m not convinced this ordinance, as written, would be enforceable in a way that actually helps.” Crow-Iverson said she hopes the delay on voting gives council members “time to look at more balanced solutions – ones that protect neighborhoods but also ensure we’re providing meaningful services to people in crisis, especially single moms and families living in their cars.” Donelson said he’d rather see such a law be enacted sooner than later to address what police describe as increasing numbers of complaints about illegal parking in neighborhoods. “We could have done this simultaneously — pass this ordinance while we examine what else we need to do to address people living in cars and also in parks and along creek beds and throughout our city.” Council member David Leinweber, who owns a business in town and said he has routinely dealt with homeless people on his property, raised concerns about the ordinance during the meeting but said later that he voted not to delay because he wants to simplify how homelessness is handled by law enforcement. “We don’t need different rules for different areas and circumstances; let’s come up with a single piece that would help law enforcement do what they do,” he said. However, Leinweber said he’s disturbed that the city “hasn’t addressed the solution side.” He believes the city lacks a strategic plan with a blueprint of key performance indicators and measurable outcomes. He’d also like to see a systems map that details how people enter and exit homelessness through specific services and determine what’s missing from the big picture. “What we have is a really nice brochure,” he said of the response plan the mayor released last year. “Our biggest gap by far is our mental health hospital is our county jail. Everyone knows that, but what are we doing about it?” The city unveiled its five-year Homelessness Response Action Plan in November of 2024 with 60 actions listed in areas of enforcement and cleanup, street outreach and shelter, homelessness prevention, employment for homeless people, housing and supportive services, and collaboration and public communications. Though the city is responsible for enforcing municipal laws, conducting cleanup of homeless camps and deploying street outreach teams, it does not provide direct services, said Cox, the city’s housing and homelessness response officer. Rather, the city works with service providers to help achieve goals. “To say it’s not branded in some strategy would be unfair,” she said of the existing plan. “There was a robust community process, with residents, business owners, people with lived experience identifying what they believe the solutions to be.” Among accomplishments from the plan over the past year, Cox cites defining the scope of homelessness in the community using various data sets, conducting a housing-needs assessment that will be released Monday, helping develop a new plan for emergency winter shelter and launching a “Clean and Safe” pilot program with the Downtown Partnership of Colorado Springs. The latter brings ambassadors, outreach workers and additional security to individually contact people living on the streets and assist them. From Sept. 1, when outreach started and through Oct. 31, workers made 166 contacts with people who are homeless and issued 18 referrals to service providers, said Pat Rigdon, the Downtown Partnership’s director of downtown safety and public space management. They’ve also obtained supportive housing for one person and provided transportation to reunite four individuals with their families. Thirty individuals refused any type of assistance, Rigdon said. Behind-the-scenes work in the homelessness response plan’s first year has involved laying a foundation by establishing baseline data and identifying what measures will be used to determine success, Cox said. Depending on the statistics cited, El Paso County has anywhere between 1,745 homeless people as counted in this year’s Point in Time census to 6,846 people estimated in 2024 in a Colorado State of Homeless report from the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. Locally in 2026, the focus for homelessness will turn to treatment and recovery choices, adding more resources, building community trust through transparency and communication, and filling system gaps, according to Cox. subhed Henjum said she would like to see a “safe parking” program where people could park legally in a secure, monitored area with restroom facilities, food and caseworkers. She also thinks social workers approaching unlawfully parked vehicles instead of police would be less threatening to campers. The number of people who live in their vehicles in Colorado Springs has ranged from 10 in January of this year to 33 in July of 2024, according to statistics from the Pikes Peak Continuum of Care. Donelson still wants council to consider his proposed vehicle-camping ban. “This isn’t a solution to all homelessness. It is one thing to deal with one small piece of it, and that piece is we don’t have tools for Colorado Springs police to use in these cases,” he said, adding the proposal offered an option to receive treatment for addiction, as well as to be “put in jail for up to six months and face a big financial penalty.” The tabled issue can’t hang in limbo beyond May 12 but could resurface sooner than that. If alterations were made to the proposed ordinance or if some council members changed their minds, it could return. “I’d love to bring it back sooner,” Donelson said. “It’s not only about the car camping, it standardizes the fines and brings the different kinds of living outside under one section.” No one wants to see anyone living in a vehicle on the streets of Colorado Springs, say people on either side of the debate. Life is cramped, cold, scary and miserable, say those whose home is a car or truck or trailer. It’s also unsafe, unsanitary and unsettling to have unknown people spend their days and nights in vehicles on local streets, say affected neighbors and business owners. Residents like David Vaillencourt, who lives on Colorado Springs’ west side, said he and neighbors have been complaining since 2022 about people living in their vehicles near their homes, some for months on end. He spoke at last month’s council meeting and also sent a letter to city leaders. “The sense of safety on our trails and neighborhood streets has dropped sharply,” he said, adding that he was assaulted last July. After trying to approach a group to offer support, he said he was knocked to the ground, kicked and chased by several people. “Neighbors have observed individuals openly defecating near Fountain Creek,” he said. “This specific site has reached a point where public safety, environmental protection and repetitive non-compliance make inaction unsafe for everyone, including the individuals living there.” Tim Close, executive director of Family Promise of Colorado Springs, which provides temporary shelter for displaced families, eviction protection and stabilization programs, told City Council last month that his organization receives about 200 applications per month. The program can house seven families at a time. “More families are struggling, and more are telling us they’re living in vehicles. Their car becomes their last refuge,” he said. ”As we seek solutions, we must ensure we’re not pushing families into further despair.” ...read more read less