An anti-camping ordinance stemming from a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision will be reviewed by Lawton’s Homeless Action Committee before it’s submitted to the City Council for consideration.
“I don’t think we have a product ready for the council,” City Manager John Ratliff said on July 23. “It needs some refinement.”
The councilors discussed a proposed “anti- camping” ordinance that would pass constitutional muster in light of the Supreme Court’s June 28 opinion in City of Grants Pass, Oregon vs Johnson.
In a 6-3 decision, the Justices ruled that enforcement of generally applicable laws regulating camping on public property does not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.
The ordinance may require the wisdom of Solomon. The City Council has dual but sometimes conflicting responsibilities: ensuring that individuals who are homeless receive appropriate services, while enforcing city prohibitions against unlawful behavior such as trespassing and littering. City staff was directed to draft an ordinance that does allow “legitimate camping in the city limits by scouting and other civic-minded organizations.”
The houseless population in Lawton continues to grow, city officials contend.
Many homeless people in the city limits “are living in makeshift temporary living conditions which invite nuisance, vagrancy and other social ills,” city staff noted. Others are “illegally squatting in vacant or abandoned structures.” There have been “numerous complaints regarding homeless people littering, trespassing and loitering in different locations” throughout the city.
In February, for example, the local Fire Marshal’s Office reported 56 vacant home fires since the beginning of 2023. Many of the fires exhibited evidence of previous unlawful habitation by vagrants utilizing materials for warmth, light, and/or cooking.
Lawton resident David Reeves told the City Council that previously he worked with homeless individuals in Oregon. “These people don’t have anything,” he said. Anti-camping laws such as the ordinance being developed for Lawton “cause way more harm than good,” Reeves said. “I urge you to act with kindness.”
The Homeless Action Committee was established to evaluate “the scope of homelessness” in Lawton-Fort Sill and to reduce its impact on the community by identifying services available locally and referring homeless individuals to servicing agencies.
Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill April 25 that makes “unauthorized camping” on public lands a misdemeanor punishable by a fine or even time in jail.
Senate Bill 1854 creates the new misdemeanor crime of unauthorized camping; the new law goes into effect in November. It applies to homeless people who refuse to accept help and resources when law enforcement officers make contact with them about their living situation, likely in a tent on the side of a highway or in a median or a sleeping bag in a park.
In 2023 Stitt, citing a need for smaller government, dissolved the former Governor’s Interagency Council on Homelessness, which was created by an executive order more than two decades ago.