LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A member of Louisville Metro Council says his new ordinance would provide better oversight of when and how homeless camps are cleared by city officials.
Councilman Jecorey Arthur, D-4, wants to guarantee that city officials perform fact-based assessments before any camp is cleared and persons who are homeless are displaced.
"So instead of the camp clearings being up in the air or kind of vague as they are now, we're going to be crystal clear about making sure all decisions on clearings are based on risk assessment," Arthur said.
Arthur is proposing the amendments months after city officials were criticized by Arthur and others for clearing a camp on East Market Street in NuLu on a cold night in February 2021.
The camp was slated for cleaning, but the Louisville Metro Police Department said it was mistakenly cleared because of a "miscommunication."
"We screwed up," Chief Erika Shields said in March during a council probe of the incident. "There you go."
Arthur, who represents NuLu, says he was blindsided.
"And that's really embarrassing for the person who not only represents that district at-large but the people who are living in those streets," he said. "Those are my constituents, just like the people who are living in homes and houses."
His ordinance would amend the city's ordinance that requires the city to give a 21-day notice before clearing a camp. Arthur's amendments would require the city complete a fact-based risk assessment of any camp before giving a notice and clearing camps where "an emergency exists." According to the ordinance, the risk assessment will "determine the risk to public health or safety and the intensity of service provision that will be offered and given appropriate notice."
Louisville Metro Police officers cleared a homeless camp at Hancock and Market streets on the evening of Feb. 19.
"Making sure that we're making decisions based on facts and not just if some rich person or a group of people call because they don't want that camp near their home or near their school or any other area of town," Arthur explained. "A risk assessment that asks questions around any biohazards that might be within that camp itself, a risk assessment that asks how many people are in the camp at the time of the assessment, a risk assessment that looks at the risk of what is actually occurring within or around the camp and how it relates to the neighbors in that area or ... more importantly ... the people that live within the camp itself."
Even though the city says it's already been conducting detailed risk assessments since July, Arthur says it's important to make that process law.
Councilman Jecorey Arthur, D-4. (WDRB Photo)
Additionally, his amendment would create a bigger paper trail before any clearing by making sure council members are contacted during the process.
"If there's not transparency or better understanding about how you go in and clear a camp or clean a camp or anything else that you do with a camp, if I can't clearly communicate that to someone, that's a problem," he said.
Metro Council will start debating Arthur's ordinance in the coming weeks.
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