The City of Woonsocket Resumes Its War on the Homeless: Proposes Ordinance “Prohibiting Camping on Public Property”
City Ordinance Effectively Criminalizing Poverty Proposed By City Councilmen Cournoyer, Dubois & Gendron
Just days after the City of Woonsocket appeared to have taken a major step forward in addressing the City’s Homeless challenges, with significant conversations surrounding a State of Rhode Island funded Shelter, at 181 Cumberland Street, the Woonsocket City Council has proposed an Ordinance “Prohibiting Camping on Public Property”.
A thinly veiled attempt at criminalizing the tent cities that have taken root in Woonsocket, in the wake of the Housing & Opioid Crisis, the ordinance establishes a Trespassing Violation, and mandates a fine of up to $250 for a a second offense, on individuals, who literally have no worldly possessions. The Ordinance, employing convoluted verbiage that can only be described as generated by a sixth grade English class, apparently allows the “public safety employee, or his/her designee may immediately properly disclose of or secure, without impounding for 14 days, any items which in their judgement constitute an immediate threat to health or safety of the public or items that constitute evidence of a crime or contraband that may be legally seized, as permitted by the law”
Translation? Screw Due Process. The Ordinance will be heard at Monday nights City Council Meeting.
Woonsocket Camping Ordinance 25.O.21
Video: The City of Cranston Attempted to Legislate Homelessness Out of Existence -By Driving the Homeless Out of the City. The City Council Hearing on the Matter
