Troy City Council will consider an amended ordinance regulating public sleeping and homeless camps when it meets Tuesday, September 8, at 7:00 p.m. in Council Chambers at the Troy City Building.
After two meetings of the Safety and Health Committee, Ordinance No. O-32-2026, comes to the full council with a recommendation for passage as emergency legislation. That means it could become effective immediately after council approval and the mayor’s signature, rather than following the usual 30-day waiting period. That alone should prompt residents to pay close attention.
The committee’s report of their August 31st meeting presents the proposed law as an additional tool for Troy police officers responding to calls and complaints involving people who are homeless. Police Chief Shawn McKinney told the committee that officers are regularly called to situations involving homelessness and need a practical way to respond when safety, sanitation, access, or other public concerns are involved.
Those are legitimate responsibilities of city government. Public sidewalks, entrances, parks, rights-of-way, and public spaces must remain safe and accessible. A city cannot ignore blocked doorways, fires, threats of violence, interference with emergency services, unsafe campsites, or conduct that creates a serious risk to people or property.
But the ordinance before council is not limited to those situations.
The amended language would prohibit sleeping on public sidewalks, streets, alleys, and public rights-of-way at any time. It would also prohibit sleeping in pedestrian or vehicle entrances adjacent to public sidewalks. Camping would be prohibited on public property, including parks, benches, under bridges, and in rights-of-way. A violation would be a fourth-degree misdemeanor carrying a minimum $25 fine. The legislation also states that nothing prevents the city from pursuing other charges permitted under state or local law.
The committee spent nearly three hours hearing from residents and showed genunie concern. The committee’s report recognizes the public concern. It notes that 23 people spoke during a nearly three-hour meeting, with most expressing fear that the ordinance could criminalize homelessness, lead to arrests and fines, and make an already difficult situation worse. Representatives of a number of local nonprofits also urged the community to address the larger conditions contributing to homelessness; most distressing a cold shelter in Piqua, that serves homeless individuals in Troy will not be opening this winter season.
During the committee meeting, Council Member Todd Severt provided an amendment that objectively improved the proposal in meaningful ways. Before issuing a citation or beginning criminal enforcement, officers would be required to make a reasonable effort to determine whether shelter or supportive services can be offered or arranged. When practical, that includes providing information about shelter, transportation, housing, medical care, behavioral-health care, substance-use services, and other assistance. The person must also have a reasonable opportunity to accept or decline that help.
The amendment also requires a 24-hour notice before the city removes a campsite from public property, requires reasonable efforts to notify campers of available social services, and requires the police department to store qualifying personal property for at least 30 days.
Those safeguards matter. They put some of the police department’s stated outreach practices into the law rather than leaving them solely to informal policy.
Still, the central question remains unresolved: What happens when someone is told to leave but no safe, appropriate, and accessible alternative actually exists?
The ordinance uses important but flexible terms such as “reasonable effort,” “when practicable,” “appropriate shelter,” and “reasonably accessible alternative lodging.” The council should ask how those terms will work in real situations, especially as Miami County faces the loss of the cold-weather shelter that previously served people from both Piqua and Troy.
This is not a simple public-safety debate or a simple homelessness debate. It is both. Residents who care about safe public spaces, fair enforcement, housing, neighborhood conditions, public health, and human dignity should attend Tuesday’s meeting and make their views known before council votes on emergency passage.
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