On July 27, Troy City Council’s Safety and Health Committee met to discuss Ordinance O-32-2026. The original proposal was aimed at people living or sleeping in vehicles parked in the public right-of-way. The committee met for about 10 minutes and recommended that City Council approve the ordinance as an emergency measure. That would have allowed it to take effect right away.
But when Council met on August 3, members decided to send the ordinance back to the Safety and Health Committee for more review. Councilman Bobby Phillips said the City needed to slow down and review the language in light of court cases and questions raised by Council members and residents.
Even as the measure was sent back to the Safety and Health Committee, several residents spoke at that meeting. Some raised concerns that ticketing people who sleep in their vehicles would not solve homelessness. Others asked where people would go, what would happen to their vehicles and property, and whether the City had enough local resources to help. City officials said police would continue to offer information and referrals to available services.
The New Draft Is Broader
The new substitute ordinance is not simply a clearer version of the original vehicle ordinance. It is much broader.
The first proposal focused on people living in vehicles within the public right-of-way. It required police to find at least two signs that a vehicle was being used as a home. It also included several clear exceptions. For example, it did not apply to a vehicle parked for four hours or less, a disabled vehicle waiting for help, a commercial driver taking a required rest break, or someone waiting for emergency help. A first violation would have been a minor misdemeanor.
The replacement language reaches far beyond vehicles.
Language in the new ordinance would prohibit sleeping “at any time” on public sidewalks, streets, alleys, and other public rights-of-way. It would also prohibit sleeping in doorways leading to public or private property. The ordinance would ban camps on sidewalks, streets, parks, benches, public property, and under bridges or viaducts.
The new draft also allows a person found sleeping in these places to be removed right away. For campsites, the City would generally have to post a 24-hour notice and make reasonable efforts to tell people about social services. Personal property with apparent value would need to be stored for at least 30 days.
One part of the ordinance that did not change is that this measure is also being requested to be passed as an emergency ordinance “so that the provision can be effective as soon as possible to protect the safety of all residents and visitors”, according to a transmittal memo from City Staff.
Why This Matters
The penalty has also changed.
Under the first proposal, a first violation was a minor misdemeanor. A later violation within one year could become a fourth-degree misdemeanor. The substitute ordinance makes a violation a fourth-degree misdemeanor on the first offense, with a minimum $25 fine. For people concerned about the treatment of unhoused residents, this substitute ordinance will read as more punitive. It expands the places where sleeping is prohibited and raises the penalty for a first violation.
For residents who supported the original proposal because of concerns about a vehicle in a neighborhood, the question is different: Does this new ordinance go further than the problem Council originally set out to address?
That is a reasonable question for Council to answer in public.
Attend the Meeting
The Safety and Health Committee will meet Monday, August 31, at 6:00 p.m. in City Council chambers at Troy City Hall.
Residents who care about neighborhood safety, public spaces, homelessness, police enforcement, or the scope of local laws should attend. Ask Council members why the ordinance changed from a vehicle-focused measure into a broader ban on public sleeping and camping.
The committee members are Bill Twiss, Bobby Phillips and Todd Severt. Residents can also contact them by email before the meeting and ask that the committee explain the ordinance’s purpose, its enforcement process, and the resources available to people affected by it.
Contact Information for the Commitee Members can be found by clicking on their name.
Bill Twiss, Fifth Ward and Committee Chairman
Todd Severt, Councilmember At-Large
You can read the new ordinance here:
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Again, a solution in search of a problem. We're getting too heavy-handed with this because a few neighbors squawked. We have laws on the books that would prevent these things. If we'd only enforce them, we wouldn't have the problems