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State lawmakers have revived controversial legislation that critics say criminalizes homelessness by amending it into an unrelated proposal.
The House Judiciary Committee on Monday was slated to discuss Senate Bill 197, which initially focused on civil penalties related to unsafe buildings. However, Rep. Jennifer Meltzer, R-Shelbyville, introduced an amendment that contained language similar to a measure that failed earlier in the session after pushback from law enforcement and homelessness advocacy groups.
House Bill 1662, authored by Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, would have made camping on public property a misdemeanor offense, but Davis chose not to call the bill down by the House’s mid-February deadline, essentially killing the legislation. At the time, House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, said the measure needed more work to generate the kind of bipartisan support needed for it to pass.
But the amended SB 197 quickly passed with a 7-3 vote Monday, with all Republican members of the committee voting in favor and Democrats voting against it.
The timing of the vote meant that there was no public testimony and very little public notice of the amendment—and that it passed a key legislative deadline. Legislators have to move bills out of committee before the end of the day on April 10 for those bills to move forward.
Like HB 1662, the amended Senate bill makes camping on public property a Class C misdemeanor. Police officers must first provide a warning and give the person time to leave the area.
It does have key differences. For example, police officers would be required to first determine if an individual is eligible for emergency detention. That is a process in which officers may transport a person who they believe has a mental illness, is either dangerous or gravely disabled, and is in immediate need of hospitalization and treatment to a nearby facility.
If the officer decides the individual does not need emergency detention, then the officer must provide transportation to a local shelter or service provider. Officers are only required to do so if these services exist within five miles and can provide services or shelter. Finally, the amendment requires that officers call a local crisis intervention team, if one exists.
The individual commits a Class C misdemeanor after refusing these services and remaining in either the public right-of-way for 24 hours or public land for 72 hours. Meltzer’s amendment also specifies that these individuals should be sent to a problem-solving court.
Meltzer described this amendment as “trying to make sure these individuals are getting the necessary services to get them housing and treatment, and trying to be as humane as possible to make sure that they are getting the care that they deserve.”
Both lawmakers and advocates voiced concerns about the sudden resurgence of the measure.
Rep. Maureen Bauer, D-South Bend, said Monday that the amendment vote was on short notice and prevented the public from attending the committee hearing. Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn, D-Fishers, said there are questions regarding the relevance of the amendment to the original bill. In her “no” vote, she said she’d had little time to digest it.
Chelsea Haring-Cozzi, executive director of the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention in Indianapolis, told IBJ that service providers who had coalesced around the issue in February were surprised to see it pop back up without much public notice and no testimony.
“We thought it was pretty clear in the first half of the session that there was not support for this, and that this wasn’t the right way to go,” Haring-Cozzi said. “… The Sheriff’s Association was not supportive. Jails are not equipped, nor (are they) the right place for folks who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness to be diverted to.”
The newly amended SB 197 now heads to the House floor for consideration.
Housing and homelessness advocates had mobilized in opposition to HB 1662, which was tied to a Texas-based think tank. They argued that it would criminalize homelessness and create additional barriers for those living unsheltered. Law enforcement joined the faith and nonprofit leaders in asking lawmakers to vote against the legislation, with a lobbyist from the Indiana Sheriffs’ Association testifying that it would put a burden on county jails and is contrary to recent steps by the Legislature to divert people from entering the criminal justice system.
The Cicero Institute is an Austin, Texas-based think tank that has lobbied several states to ban street camping and direct funds away from “housing first” programs. Housing first is an increasingly popular strategy nationwide that prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness and offering support services, but not requiring their use as a condition of an individual’s housing.
Several other states, including Kentucky and Oklahoma, have passed similar model legislation from Cicero into law.
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