City will revisit ban on camping in some areas
preventing public health issues that other cities have grappled with, like a deadly Hepatitis A outbreak that rocked San Diego’s homeless population last year, Crear said.
“We don’t want the city of Las Vegas turning into San Francisco,” Fiore said. “When you have these individuals getting naked and literally excreting on our sidewalks, in front of people in the middle of the day, that’s really — it’s something that we as a city need to get under control. It’s not OK for this sort of thing to be happening.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how a new ordinance will differ from the one struck from the September City Council agenda.
“This bill will criminalize people in our community for the unfortunate condition of being without a home, and will make it illegal to sit or sleep on the sidewalk in the homeless corridor,” Nevada Homeless Alliance Executive Director Emily Paulsen told City Council members this month.
Restrictions that affect the homeless population have faced legal challenges before. A U.S. District Court judge struck down a 2006 Las Vegas ordinance that banned feeding homeless people in parks.
Las Vegas has one of the largest homeless populations among large American cities, and officials have in the last year launched a courtyard at Las Vegas Boulevard and Foremaster Lane that connects homeless people with a range of services.
The project is modeled after the Haven for Hope in San Antonio , which Fiore, Crear and Councilman Bob Coffin visited last week.