Public Camping Ordinance - Disrupting the Cycle

At a glance

• What: the City Manager's proposed Public Camping Ordinance, one piece of "Disrupting the Cycle," a strategic framework for supporting unhoused residents.
• Where it stands: recommitted to the City Manager on 2026-09-22 (8-1, Khrystian E. King abstained, Kathleen M. Toomey recused).
• Next: expect a revised ordinance to come back.

How it reached the Council

• Introduced on the September 15, 2026 agenda (item 8.19A, from the Health and Human Services Commissioner) and held under privilege by King.
• It followed several months of public safety concerns downtown and a September 8 run of orders on homelessness and downtown violence.
• Presented on September 22 by the Commissioner of Health and Human Services (Seema Dixit) and her assistant (Alex Arriaga).

Provisions as read aloud

• A 72-hour notice and a $25-a-day fine.
• Enforcement by civil or criminal process.
• Would bar camping, using tents or semi-permanent structures, or sitting, sleeping or lying on public streets, sidewalks and property.

Public comment and council positions

• About 45 members of the public spoke against it and a few in favor.
• Gary Rosen moved to recommit it to the City Manager.
• Joseph M. Petty asked for state funding help and a best-practices report on permanent public bathrooms.
• Morris A. Bergman proposed making violations civil rather than criminal (not put).
• Councilors across the board said the $25 fine and criminal enforcement should go, while Bergman, Economou and Ojeda wanted some version of enforcement kept.

Related orders

• Ten-plus related orders on shelters, winter overflow shelter readiness, encampment maps and clinical co-response were adopted under suspension.

Discussion time

About 124 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Log

• 2026-09-29 - City Council — The ordinance itself was not on the agenda, but it framed the night: speakers (for example Dante Comparetto, Kirsten Fraser, Gary Hunter) referred to the Council's decision the prior week to send the camping fines back for revision, and Gary Rosen asked the Police Chief about police outreach to homeless residents (a plain-clothes team; arrests for drug dealing regardless of housing status). Khrystian E. King's follow-up orders were adopted 11-0 (see Winter Shelter and Day Resource Center).
• 2026-09-22 - City Council — Taken out of order after a roughly two-hour public participation (about 45 speakers against, a few for, including Mike Kane of the Chamber of Commerce and Vincent Pedone of the Shrewsbury Street Neighborhood Association). Commissioner Seema Dixit and Assistant Commissioner Alex Arriaga presented the framework (data sharing, asset map, standardized outreach, winter shelter, encampment identification, ordinance as a last step); figures as heard: about 150 on the street, under 200 shelter beds, about 60 chronically unhoused, about 300 encampment locations. Gary Rosen said he could not support fines or criminalization and moved to recommit; Mayor Joseph M. Petty agreed and said he supports no fine. Khrystian E. King drew admissions from Eric D. Batista and Dixit that the $25 fine was added late, was never shared with the steering committee partners and drew no lived-experience input, and that the city's Commission on Homelessness has had no appointed members for years. Morris A. Bergman wanted a civil penalty and opposed recommitting; Satya B. Mitra, Jose A. Rivera, Robert A. Bilotta and Luis A. Ojeda wanted the fine dropped; Tony Economou noted fines in Lowell, Fall River and Brockton; John P. Fresolo pushed congregate housing. King's motion to place on file failed 1-9 (Toomey recused); Rosen's recommit passed 8-1 (Bergman opposed, King abstained). King's resolution opposing the ordinance and Bergman's civil-offense amendment were not put. Orders adopted under suspension: Petty (state funding, bathroom best practices), Mitra (local/state/federal meeting), King (overflow shelter, shelter readiness report, displacement and survival report, gateway-city lobbying of the governor, encampment maps, clinical co-response). Also see Winter Shelter and Day Resource Center.
• 2026-09-15 - City Council — Item 8.19A (Health and Human Services Commissioner Seema Dixit, "Recommend Adoption of Proposed Public Camping Ordinance in the Context of 'Disrupting the Cycle'") read; Khrystian E. King held it under privilege, so it was not debated. Petty said anyone who spoke now could not speak when it returned. Public participation was extended an hour (11-0); King's motion to run until all were heard failed 6-5 (8 needed). 44 of 46 speakers opposed it. Speakers' reading of the draft: $25-a-day fine, 72-hour notice, "reasonable efforts to offer shelter", criminal process still allowed under section E3; they cited about 197 permanent shelter beds versus more than 1,000 unhoused (the city's own framework, per Road to Care clinician Jillian Joseph), urged housing first, rent control, porta-potties and a pause until shelter capacity exists, and Karin Valentine Goins asked that it go to the Public Health committee for a hearing. Same night: Gary Rosen's Homelessness Response Action Plan order adopted 11-0 (he said a regional approach, not blame of neighboring towns; Eric D. Batista said the city already works with Millbury, Shrewsbury, Auburn and Grafton and that the encampment policy is one part of the "Disrupting the Cycle" framework; Morris A. Bergman repeated his claim that over half of unhoused people come from surrounding towns), with King's report on the dissolved Central Massachusetts Regional Public Health Alliance; King's Public Health and Human Services invitation to social service agencies referred 10-0 (Toomey recused).
• 2026-09-08 - City Council — Not on the agenda yet; Rosen's regional homelessness response plan order (15e), Economou's downtown violence action plan (15g) and Toomey's invitation to social-service agencies (15h) were held under privilege by Rosen (adopted / placed on file 9/15).