ITHACA, N.Y. — Ithaca’s Common Council unanimously approved a response protocol Wednesday outlining a procedure for how city staff should interact with people camping on city property outside of the recently established sanctioned encampment zone.
It’s the most recent legislative push in the city’s ongoing efforts to craft its pilot program for addressing homelessness in its borders, largely concentrated on Ithaca’s West End.
The protocol outlines how city staff are supposed to approach and attempt to persuade people living outdoors to camp inside the city’s sanctioned encampment zone, where Common Council intends to approve the creation of amenities like potable water, bathrooms and showers.
The response protocol was approved despite appearing before council on short notice, and a small, but vocal, opposition to it from speakers during public comment.
The protocol is a revision of one that was first discussed at the city’s Planning & Economic Development Committee (PEDC) Nov. 15, where it was presented by Nels Bohn, the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency’s Director of Community Development.
The protocol council passed Wednesday showed only minor changes from what Bohn presented weeks earlier.
Bohn had initially called the policy “conceptual” Nov. 15, but outgoing Alderperson Rob Gearhart member-filed the policy to come to a vote Wednesday.
Typically, a policy or resolution will be voted on in committee before being sent to the full council. In an interview before council’s Wednesday meeting, Gearhart said he wanted to have the policy in place before the end of “Code Blue” season, a state policy that goes into effect from October 15 to April 15. Under Code Blue, counties in New York are required to to provide shelter to anyone who needs when temperatures, accounting for wind chill, drop below 32°F. The state reimburses the counties for expenses incurred under Code Blue.
Code Blue’s end in April will likely mean a surge in the homeless population on Ithaca’s West End, starting the first real test of the city’s policy of a sanctioned encampment zone, also known as the green zone.
Gearhart said he wanted guidance in place for city staff long before April, and he worried that the city’s new incoming council — which is slated to have six new members — may not be able to implement the policy until February at the earliest.
“I’m looking at this as a logistical opportunity, not a political one,” Gearhart said.
The resolution tasks the City Manager with two significant responsibilities: proposing a plan to implement the response protocol, including a projected budgetary impact; and recommending amendments to the response protocol into the city’s sanctioned encampment policy.
Gearhart highlighted the latter direction to the incoming city manager, Deb Mohlenhoff. He said the resolution aims to keep the protocol “flexible.”
“It’s not defining it in a way that [the policy] can’t be updated based on what’s going to work better,” Gearhart said. “Especially given things like what will our resource capabilities be by April 15.”
While Gearhart positioned the policy as flexible, and an attempt to spur progress on a slow-moving city initiative, several members of the public reiterated their objections to previous versions of the response protocol. They argued that the existence of an enforcement policy criminalizes homelessness, and asked that the incoming Common Council be left to further shape and vote on the response protocol — urging that did little to sway how the ten-member council voted.
Sarah Curless, a local housing advocate, said she disagreed with the use of an enforcement protocol to move people camping on city property to the sanctioned encampment zone. Curless said she thought the policy was being pushed through “in a sneaky way in a lame duck session.”
Tompkins County Legislator Veronica Pillar told Common Council Wednesday during public comment they felt the city did not adequately check in with the county, or outreach workers before moving forward with the policy.
Without having seen how the sanctioned encampment area plays out, and without having checked in with the county, Pillar said they felt the city’s response protocol “is way ahead.”
The city and Tompkins County have formed a working group to establish an approach to addressing homelessness in the community. The county expected to play a large role in the administration of mental health and social services.
Tompkins County Legislature Chair Shawna Black told The Ithaca Voice in a statement that the city’s sanctioned encampment policy is an “ambitious plan that requires city staff and enforcement. My hope is that the city is able to prioritize the plan with the needed allocated resources.”
“As we approach the new year with a new mayor, leadership, staff, and councilmembers, it will be imperative that the county and city continue to communicate over the issues that affect our community,” Black said.
Outgoing Alderperson Jorge DeFendini successfully pushed for the council to include additional language in its resolution through an amendment that acknowledges “forced relocation of campsites” as a “disruptive and traumatic event that results in worse health and housing outcomes for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.”
DeFendini also included an additional task for the incoming City Manager. Mohlenhoff will need to create a “restricted list of case scenarios that instruct when the policy may be enforced on lightly managed lands.”
Outgoing Alderperson Cynthia Brock said she thought DeFendini’s language concerning force relocation was “alarmist” and not necessary.
“To even imply that there might be a compulsory relocation just sets the stage for confusion,” Brock said.
The amendment was adopted after Common Council split five to five on the vote, and outgoing-Mayor Laura Lewis cast what appears to be her first and only tie-breaking vote in her time as mayor.
“I reluctantly voted in favor,” Lewis said.
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