Tonight, Troy City Council will discuss—and likely vote on—Ordinance O-32-2026. The meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. in Council Chambers.
This ordinance has taken a long path. It has been debated at Council meetings, committee meetings, and throughout the community. Residents have spoken. Nonprofit leaders have spoken. The Troy Police Department has spoken.
That matters because Council did not simply approve the first version placed in front of it. Members heard concerns, asked questions, and worked toward a middle ground. Council should receive credit for that work. The final ordinance is better than the first version offered by the city administration.
That is what a City Council should do.
The ordinance gives Troy Police another tool when someone is sleeping or camping in public places. It bans sleeping on sidewalks, streets, alleys, and other public rights-of-way. It also bans camps in parks, under bridges, on benches, and on other city-owned property.
The ordinance does not say police should write tickets first. Before issuing a citation in most cases, an officer must make a reasonable effort to see if shelter or services can be offered. That can include telling someone about shelter, emergency housing, transportation, medical care, mental-health services, addiction services, and other help that may fit the person’s needs.
If a proper shelter bed or another reasonable place to stay is found, and the person turns it down or cannot be placed there, an officer may issue a citation. Police may also act right away when there is a safety or health risk, violence or a threat of violence, blocked emergency access, a fire hazard, criminal activity, or a serious problem keeping others from using public property.
A first violation is a minor misdemeanor with a fine of up to $25. A second violation within one year can become a fourth-degree misdemeanor.
Reasonable people can disagree about whether this is the right answer. Still, Council was asked to give police another option when a problem cannot be solved through warnings, outreach, or other efforts. On balance, Council has produced a more careful ordinance than the one first offered to the public.
An Ordinance Is Not a Solution
Troy should not confuse passing an ordinance with solving homelessness.
At an earlier Council meeting, Jessica Echols, executive director of Partners In Hope, explained that the situation which helped start this public debate was at least partly resolved because the right person had the right resources at the right time. That is an important point.
No one is saying the city should ignore unsafe camps, blocked sidewalks, fire risks, public health concerns, or problems in neighborhoods. Residents, businesses, and families have a right to expect safe and usable public spaces. Police need tools when those problems happen.
But an ordinance cannot create a housing unit. It cannot pay a security deposit, provide a ride to work, replace a lost ID, or connect someone with mental-health care or addiction treatment. It cannot give a person a case manager who has time to help them work through a hard situation.
A police officer can offer help, but help must be there to offer. That is where Troy needs to do more.
The Mayor’s Challenge Goes Both Ways
Over the weekend, the City’s Mayor urged people who oppose the ordinance to volunteer with or donate to local nonprofits. That is a fair request in one sense. Local nonprofits need volunteers, donations, and community support. They do important work every day, often with limited staff and limited money.
But the mayor’s challenge should also go back to City Hall.
If Troy is asking residents to donate more, volunteer more, and support nonprofits more, then the city should be willing to do more, too. The city has resources, and it has the ability to set priorities.
Troy’s most recent Annual Comprehensive Financial Report shows the city spent more than $3 million on “Leisure Time Activities” and just over $500,000 on “Public Health and Welfare.” Recreation, parks, trails, and community events matter. They are part of what makes Troy a good place to live.
But people matter, too.
A city that can spend millions on leisure and recreation can be part of a reasonable strategy to help people avoid sleeping in cars, under bridges, on sidewalks, or in public parks. This is not an argument to cut parks. It is not an argument to stop supporting recreation. It is an argument for balance.
What Troy Could Do
The city does not need to become a social-service agency. Troy should not try to replace local nonprofits, shelters, behavioral-health providers, or other community groups already doing this work. But Troy can be a stronger partner.
The city could create a small and open funding program for nonprofits that deal with these issues, much in the same way that it provides $140,000 a year to the Troy Development Council and $60,000 a year to Troy Main Street. It could support actvities that help improve case management, short-term emergency housing, transportation, replacement identification, mental-health and addiction-recovery connections, housing navigation, and landlord outreach.
These are not abstract ideas. They are practical needs that can decide whether someone stays housed or becomes homeless. Often, the difference is a small amount of money, a ride, an open shelter bed, an available case manager, or someone who knows how to help at the right time.
The city could also create a clear plan for what happens before a ticket is issued. If the ordinance is truly a last resort, the public should know what comes first. Did an officer contact a provider? Was a shelter bed actually open? Was transportation offered? Did the person get connected to a case manager? What happened after the outreach effort?
Those are fair questions, and the public deserves answers.
Both/And, Not Either/Or
Troy can protect neighborhoods, sidewalks, parks, trails, businesses, and public spaces. Troy can give its police officers a tool for serious situations when other efforts have not worked. And Troy can invest more in the local systems that help people before they reach a crisis.
These are not competing goals.
Council deserves credit for working through a difficult issue and improving the ordinance through public debate. But if Council passes this law tonight, the city’s work should not end when the vote is over.
The real test will be what Troy does next. Will the city rely on police and nonprofits to carry the burden alone? Or will City Hall match its call for others to donate, volunteer, and help by putting real city resources behind the work?
A $25 ticket may be a tool. But it is not a housing plan.
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One of the things that I'm looking at doing is taking a group of people over to New Carlisle where I attend church. There. They have a homeless problem that is just as bad if not worse than in Troy. But, they have a city-led social services commission that connects people with resources. I think that would be a good idea to bring to Troy. But, in order to make this work, and this is something I've said before, the city has to put some skin in the game and right now they're not willing to do that. Until they're willing to do that, this ordinance will go nowhere and I'm ready to referendum it if I have to
Yeah but cops don’t give warnings. They kill people or make matters worse. Dumbest ordinance ever