Statewide Camping Ban Clears House

The House of Delegates passed a Statewide Camping Ban bill. The bill is targeted at homeless encampments throughout the state. 

Since a U.S. Supreme Court Decision that allowed for certain types of bans on homeless encampments, municipalities around the state have issued camping bans on public property.

Three other states, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Florida, have passed similar bans.  

The bill’s lead sponsor is Geno Chiarelli, R-Monongalia. Part of his district is Morgantown where last year residents successfully petitioned to suspend a camping ban from the city council until a vote next month. 

He said he took into account that some of his district would not be included in the Morgantown vote. 

“There’s people that are for and there’s people that are against it. The people that are for it, a lot of them live in my district, and they unfortunately don’t have a say when it comes to the local ordinance,” Chiarelli said. 

The bill would place the ban over the entire state, including areas like the southern coalfields where resources are scant, and there’s only one homeless shelter in the entire region. 

Chiarelli pointed to other pieces of legislation that have been introduced, like a bill that would take a comprehensive approach to solving homelessness in the state. However that bill has not yet been taken up in any committee. The deadline for bills to be taken up in committee is effectively March 28th. 

Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, voted no on the bill. His district encompasses half of Morgantown. 

“I don’t think it’s up to these people here in Charleston to tell the city of Morgantown or any other city what to do,” Hansen said. 

He said if the bill is passed he’s concerned about areas that don’t have resources for people experiencing homelessness. 

“There’s a big concern about areas that don’t have resources because this bill doesn’t address those areas,” Hansen said. “It also doesn’t address areas like Morgantown, where we have lots of resources, but they’re frequently full.”

The way the bill works is it doesn’t necessarily ban sleeping on public property. Instead it bans “Camp Paraphernalia.” Those are things like tents, blankets, and sleeping bags. 

Chiarelli said this also applies to storing personal belongings on public property like a backpack, or pillow. 

“If you are camping illicitly, or you are storing personal property on state or municipal property, you would not be able to do that. And then the enforcing officer, first warning someone would get a verbal warning, they would be given resources, outlining any available alternative shelters,” Chiarelli said. 

Then there is a progressive punitive scale. The second offense would result in a fine between $25 and $100. The third offense would be a fine of up to $500 or jail for up to 30 days.