Recently, the board of aldermen voted (twice) to make homelessness illegal in our city. As of December 1st, anyone found “publicly camping” will be fined and forced to relocate, because that’s how we help people, right? Especially in Northern New England during the holidays.

The aldermen in favor of this barbaric ordinance claim it is because people will die without it. Forcing individuals to relocate during the winter is what will kill them. If I told you that you had to spend the winter in a tent, wouldn’t you rather have all summer to prepare for the worst of it? Or do you think taking it apart and setting it up somewhere else in the middle of winter is going to help you survive? Because it won’t. And currently, with no beds and nowhere to go, that is the only option they will have if this sick ordinance remains in place. 

We all assume that the society we contribute to and live in will take care of us if we ever need it. That’s kind of part of the deal, right? That’s the promise? The way a majority of our aldermen have been voting proves that that is a lie. 

Living in a tent in a public park in winter should be rock bottom, but most of the aldermen just dug that hole even deeper. Where they could have been compassionate, they chose to instead vote for their own self-interests, whatever those may be. 

People that would have lived if these aldermen had done the right thing will die this year. So, to save lives moving forward, I propose we look to Finland’s Housing First Initiative and model our societal safety nets after the ones that are working. And let’s dissolve this awful ordinance so that the people who are actually trying to solve long-term homelessness can do so without having to also battle the short-term problems a small group of people with power created with a punitive ordinance and no plan of action whatsoever.