Abatement of public campsites in downtown Peoria has been put on hold until January.
Joe Dulin, the city’s Director of Community Development says the process to begin enforcing a newly enacted ban on encampments “is fluid” as they work with multiple organizations to assist the unhoused individuals.
“We’re continuing to work with our social service providers to provide housing to as many people as we can before the enforcement would happen,” said Dulin. “With the holidays coming up and all their work, we’ll continue to work through the rest of the year on working with them to find housing for our residents. We won’t start the enforcement of it until sometime after the 1st of the year.”
The Peoria City Council passed the prohibition of unauthorized public camping by a split 6-5 vote during a special meeting on Nov. 19. At the time, Dulin told the city council it would take 30 days before enforcement could begin.
The city indicated is initial efforts would be focused on prominent campsites along the Interstate 74 corridor in the downtown Central Business District.
Dulin said the city doesn’t have a firm number on how many individuals have been placed so far, noting that Phoenix Community Development Services is leading the efforts.
“Since the ordinance was adopted, we’ve met weekly and had multiple conversations with JOLT Harm Reduction, Phoenix Community Development Services, LULA – really everyone who’s involved in the (Home for All) Continuum of Care – to try to do what we can to find units, get units ready to really minimize the impact of the camping ordinance going into place,” said Dulin.
“We’ll continue to do that and continue to try to get as many of our unsheltered population housed as possible before we start taking the enforcement action.”
