A SC city just proposed an ordinance that could criminalize homelessness. Here’s what happened next

One after another in three-minute speeches over the course of about an hour, Greenville residents implored the City Council to not criminalize being homeless.

Councilman John DeWorken had proposed an ordinance that would ban public camping and could lead to jail time if violated. City staff researched various ordinances in other cities to write Greenville’s version.

Members of various community organizations, including one recently created by community leaders called Greenville Together, said resoundingly homelessness is not a crime.

A business owner who moved his business from downtown because his employees had been harassed and were frightened and his business defaced with urine and excrement supported the measure.

Greenville Together estimates there are about 250 people in the city who are unhoused, but as with most such surveys that is likely an undercount. Greenville Together’s goal is to end homelessness by 2027.

Among the bans would be lying on a bench or lying down anywhere in public for more than two hours.

One woman told the council that could include her 10-month-old child during Shakespeare in the Park. Another woman said her 6-year-old asked where the homeless were supposed to go.

Several people lamented the fact that the cost of housing has increased precipitously and several in-town neighborhoods had undergone gentrification.

The city has created funding for affordable housing and established a homeless court. The no camping ordinance was described as another tool in helping the homeless.

DeWorken said he intended to create an ordinance that was kind and compassionate while solving a very real problem.

“How can we go from you can’t be here to incarceration? How do we do an intervention?” he asked.

He said he understands homelessness. His father once lived in a tent in Jacksonville, Florida, for two years.

“I hear you,” DeWorken said to the packed City Council chambers. “This is a deeply personal issue for me.”

In the end, he made a motion to postpone consideration until Aug. 11 to give time for more people to look for solutions. It passed 6-1 with Councilman Russell Stall voting no, explaining he wanted to kill it completely.