Savannah council passes measure to ban “urban camping,” aligning with county’s policy

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson held up a stack of speaker cards for public comments at Thursday’s city council meeting and made an observation. Every person who signed up to speak on the item at hand had an address listed.

That item was an ordinance prohibiting “urban camping” in public spaces, and Johnson noted that none of the speakers present were from the community most likely to be impacted by the law―members of Savannah’s homeless community.

“The people we’re talking about don’t have an address. We haven’t heard from them, the people who are affected,” Johnson said.

Background: Chatham County passes measure to curb camping on public space; Savannah hears similar proposal

Still, Savannah City Council approved the new ordinance unanimously, despite vocal concerns from Johnson and District 3 Alderwoman Linda Wilder-Bryan. The item passed after Johnson added a request for the city manager to report on the ordinance’s effectiveness after 90 days to assess if any changes are needed.

The new ordinance prohibits “camping” in public spaces, which is defined as using public space for living accommodations such as sleeping, making preparations to sleep or storing personal belongings. The provision also states that no person may be arrested under the ordinance until they receive a written or oral warning from the Savannah Police Department.

Those who support the ordinance, including the Chatham-Savannah Authority for the Homeless and the Interagency Council on Homelessness, say it gives law enforcement a tool to address illegal behavior arising from camping activities.

“You have to have a few tools in the toolbelt in order to ensure that the public spaces and the systems that you’ve built in order to provide support for people are able to operate in the way that they need to operate,” said Savannah City Manager Jay Melder, who worked on homelessness policies in previous jobs. “Every day I hear from our partners who are working on this issue that this kind of support would be useful for their work, and believe me, they are engaged in helping people. They are not engaged in hurting people.”

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Melder added that the ordinance is not a “cure all” for the issue. The city manager along with other members of council said the city has created various support services, including housing, to help those experiencing homelessness. Projects such as the veterans’ tiny homes at The Cove at Dundee and under-construction transitional housing on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard are devoted to aid homeless individuals.

Opponents of the ordinance argued the proposal criminalizes homelessness, and that the city should pursue “housing-first” policies to address the issue.

“There’s too many pathways, too many obstacles for our homeless, and we don’t need to create more obstacles by criminalizing their condition,” said Lutheran Church of the Ascension Pastor Matthew Henning.

The ordinance also permits SPD to seize personal property that is found in violation of the code, which drew concerns from Johnson and Wilder-Bryan about “chain of custody” on how the items would be stored and potentially reobtained by owners.

The ordinance’s passage comes after Chatham County passed a nearly identical provision in late May. At that time, Savannah City Council also held its first public hearing on the item. Each ordinance follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2024 that upheld and Oregon city’s version of a similar ordinance.

Public comments and council debate were tense and emotional at times Thursday. One member of the public was ordered to leave after shouting questions as District 6 Alderman Kurtis Purtee was giving a speech on his support of the item.

Evan Lasseter is the city of Savannah and Chatham County government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah approves ordinance to prohibit homeless camping in public space