The Yorkville City Council passed amendments to its public camping ordinance on Oct. 14, including eliminating restrictions on sleeping in public places, cars on public streets, or in the park during open hours.

The ordinance’s escalating fines and possible incarceration remain in-place if any homeless individual refuses social services being offered and continues public camping. Mention of a full repeal has been off the table, with only one alderman voting against the amendments.

Several community members calling for full repeal said at the Oct. 14 city council meeting that tremendous progress has been made connecting the town’s unhoused population, which was only four people at one point, with shelter accommodations and individualized social workers.

Of the original four unhoused individuals, three have been provided living accommodations and social services through Daybreak Center of Joliet. The fourth individual is being provided a street outreach assessment for potential placement by Daybreak, according to Yorkville resident Cecilia Martinez.

A few persistent residents of Yorkville, in coordination with efforts by the Yorkville Police Department, helped connect the town’s unhoused with social services and housing accommodations.

At the city council meeting, the residents said progress was made without and despite the ordinance, which they called unnecessary, “heavy-handed” and cause for distrust between the police and unhoused individuals.

Police Chief James Jensen said at the Sept. 23 city council meeting, the ordinance enables police to intervene quicker to ensure the safety of the public in incidents of harassment or trespassing.

The ordinance provides officers greater maneuverability than the current ordinances on the books for such offenses, the police department said.

Residents calling for repeal – including Anne Engelhardt, former executive director of Kendall County PADS – said the ordinance is a short-cut from doing the work necessary to connect individuals with social services and to address systemic solutions to homelessness.

The lone vote against Yorkville’s amendments was from Alderman Daniel Transier, who said he had concerns that the Kendall County State’s Attorney’s Office would take up the cases.

“I don’t think it makes good policy sense to enact legislation that carries the possibility of incarceration if we don’t know who’s going to prosecute the complaint,” Transier said.

Deputy Police Chief Garrett Carlyle said during the Sept. 23 meeting that the possibility of incarceration remains remote because their emphasis remains on providing access to social services while enacting fines if necessary over a prolonged period of time to encourage change.

During the Oct. 14 meeting, Martinez said through her experiences assisting the unhoused individuals in town, she has identified several reasons individuals were hesitant to accept social services. She said the ordinance only made their willingness to accept help more difficult.

Martinez said reasons for being hesitant include fear for their own safety at shelters, especially if they have PTSD, mental health struggles, or disability impairments, and a deterioration of trust with police that is eroded from the nature of the ordinance.

“I think you should repeal it, none of this (progress) had anything to do with the ordinance and nothing in the ordinance made this any easier or furthered the goal of trying to get them into a shelter,” she said.

Focus on social services

The discussions surrounding the ordinance have highlighted the current strengths and lapses of the social safety net needed to aid the unhoused in Kendall County.

Some of the issues include extensive wait periods for placement in shelters and difficulties acquiring access to identification documents and stable access to food, according to Martinez.

Kendall County belongs to the Will County Continuum of Care, which includes the Daybreak Center, that provides access to 24-7 continuous support for housing services and shelter placement, with access to necessary social services. It also partners with the Kendall County Health Department’s homeless prevention services.

The Continuum of Care operates a free 2-1-1 confidential helpline run by United Way that helps connects people with local resources and services.

With the ordinance remaining on the books, Yorkville joins around 25 other towns across Illinois who have enacted ordinances to criminalize homelessness following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in June that such ordinances do not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The trend has been met with resistance, including the proposed Illinois House Bill 1429 that would amend the Bill of Right for the Homeless Act to prevent local governments from creating ordinances or giving fines or criminal penalties to unsheltered persons for occupying or engaging in life-sustaining activities on public property.