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JACKSON, MI – Jordan Moon, a U.S. Army veteran, said he joined the military because he was sleeping in his vehicle.
“I know what it feels like to have no roof over your head, to worry about where your belongings will be and to feel invisible to people who are supposed to care, support and serve you,” said Moon, who was born and raised in Jackson, works downtown and lives in Charlotte.
“The most effective response to homelessness is not confiscating the few possessions people have left. It’s investing in housing, treatment and services that help people regain stability.”
Moon was one of nearly 50 people who spoke before Jackson City Council on Tuesday, July 22, about homelessness as the city considers an ordinance that would prohibit unpermitted tents and allow for city officers, with written notice, to remove excessive property in public spaces.
Public comment continued for hours, and the City Council chambers were packed with people. Before they started to trickle out as the meeting grew long, some stood in the entrance and lined the perimeter walls. Several times, as people shouted from the audience or at each other, Mayor Daniel Mahoney spoke sternly to restore order.
The turnout and engagement spoke to the urgency of the problem, said City Attorney Matthew Hagerty, the ordinance author.
At issue in particular is an encampment where, according to one person living there, as many as 17 people have gathered outside the downtown Jackson District Library on West Michigan Avenue. On Tuesday afternoon, the sidewalk featured tents, tarps, bins, a lawnmower and other heaps of items while people slept or milled about the piles.
‘An impossible burden’
Moon criticized the ordinance, which offers people who are homeless no “meaningful protection.”
“It places an impossible burden on people who often lack transportation, reliable communication or a secure place to relocate their belongings,” he said.
Ensuring public safety and clearing sidewalks are legitimate public interests, he acknowledged. “But these problems can be solved without confiscating personal property under unrealistic guidelines.”
In high-use downtown or areas with a lot of pedestrian traffic, those with excessive property could receive notice of no less than two hours that city officers will remove their property, the proposed ordinance states.
However, City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday to approve a first-reading of the ordinance and instruct city staff to explore lengthening this period.
In cases outside those well-traveled areas, people will be given 24 hours to remove their items before impoundment.
Taken possessions would be stored in steel shipping containers placed on a city parking lot and could be reclaimed without identification within 30 days, city officials said, but the City Council also wants to consider language that could give people an extension.
What the city is suggesting is “weaponizing” the system against the “have-nots,” said Dr. John Hand, a phycologist who had a Jackson office for more than 50 years.
He said he was disgusted by the proposal.
“These are people. Each of them has their own story. Each of them has their own journey, why they’re there, how they got there,” he said.
“They don’t want to be there.”
Such an ordinance could create more problems, he contends. For one, it could agitate people and cause animus in an already divisive community, he said.
“You’ve created a whole bunch of enemies here.”
With all the worries in the city, including lacking public transit and pedestrian routes, why bother with an unhoused person’s “basket of blankets?” one woman asked.
‘Sooner than later’
Others favor the ordinance.
“There should be no limits to me enjoying my city because of others’ negative choices,” said Qwenisha Durling, 23, who lives in Blackstone Apartments and has two daughters, ages 2 and 5.
Phil Berkemeier, a Thompson Street resident, said he is a regular library patron. “And what I’ve seen there in recent months is just appalling.”
He said he and his wife have witnessed people within the encampment arguing, fighting and playing loud music. Others said they’ve observed drug use and discarded needles.
It is a big problem, Berkemeier said. “It needs to be addressed now, sooner than later.”
Jackson considered an emergency ordinance that would have gone into effect as soon as Thursday but the City Council decided against it, opting instead to amend the proposal and take more time for consideration.
The idea is to ensure a welcoming space downtown to protect and encourage visitors and businesses and also preserve the dignity of those affected, city leaders said.
This proposal is a “content-neutral and status-neutral public health, safety, accessibility, and nuisance-abatement regulation applicable to all,” the ordinance reads.
Employee fears
Several downtown business owners stood and expressed growing alarm over what they say has been a growing problem.
Richard Collins, executive board vice chair at Commonwealth Associates, said panhandlers or people who are homeless are following employees to their cars, and he is considering hiring security.
The firm’s office, serving about 170 employees, is on West Michigan Avenue across the street from Horace Blackman Park, also a common gathering place for people without homes.
What employees see near their office is “not very conducive to a professional environment,” he said.
While this is not the only Jackson complaint, interns have declined to stay because they do not wish to live or work in Jackson, Collins said.
Commonwealth is negotiating a lease in an Ann Arbor office park for an additional space in hopes of better retaining college graduates, he said.
Would the ordinance help Jackson? It would temporarily “stir things up,” he said, and clear the “eyesore” at the library.
“My fear is they take all their stuff, put it in storage and hang out under the awning at the park.”
Kristy Maxwell works at Oak + Iron at 151 W. Michigan Ave. and said the unease of women working in the city is real. Some employees have quit because they feel unsafe, she said.
“I was raised on ‘Good Bye Earl,’ so not very much a weak woman by any means, and I now have a security guard who walks me to my car,” Maxwell said, referencing The Chicks’ 2000 song about two friends who kill an abusive husband.
One man would not stop tapping on her window, she said.
The ordinance, however, is too much of a “quick fix.”
The encampment needs to be removed, she said, but what is the greater answer?
“At what point will you do something real to fix it? Is it going to take a mother dying on the street because there is someone who is upset having a mental health crisis or someone who is strung out?”
Less visible, still chronic
All the ordinance does is make homelessness less visible, said Nick Cook, director of public policy for the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness.
“Across Michigan, housing costs continue to outpace incomes. Emergency shelters are often full and affordable housing remains in short supply,” Cook said. “For individuals sleeping outdoors because they have nowhere else to go, a tent is not a nuisance.”
The proposed regulation treats people experiencing homelessness as an “obstacle to be managed” rather than as neighbors in need of assistance
It describes personal belongings as hazards, obstructions and nuisances. “Yet nowhere does it create housing.”
The city cannot just move people, he said. They must connect them to services.
Jackson City Council members and city leaders conceded the ordinance will not resolve homelessness. That is not its intent.
“There are still going to be homeless people no matter what we do,” Mahoney said.
City Manager Jonathan Greene said a meeting is in the works to get together all community stakeholders – like Community Action Agency, the Jackson Interfaith Shelter and others – in August to define concerns, identify gaps and open dialogue.
“We need to hear from the experts,” he said.
The burden cannot be on the city alone, said City Council member Angelita Gunn of Ward 3. She voted no Tuesday on both motions regarding the ordinance.
Shalanda Hunt of Ward 5 did too. “If we execute tonight, they are gone tomorrow to a different location,” she said.
At the same time, to do nothing says the city is OK with the way it is, she said. “We must have a plan forward,” she said and called on churches and their leaders.
The decision is not easy, and City Council cannot make it alone, she said.
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