- In 2023 the City of Hillsdale outlawed camping on public property.
- City Council Member Robert Socha says he was hearing from neighbors that homeless encampments were inhibiting their enjoyment of local trails and parks.
- The ordinance gave police the authority to clear encampments.
Homeless encampments in areas like this one near Baw Beese Lake are what prompted Hillsdale City Council to pass an ordinance prohibiting camping on public property.
"We used to see people far in the back — you could see, like, tents or whatever," said one hiker I met on the trail near Baw Beese Lake.
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"Lot of trash and refuse and human waste….People…were starting to be fearful of running on the trails or letting their children ride their bikes on the trails," says City Council Member Robert Socha.
Complaints like these led him to draft the ordinance.
"The immediate effect was we gave our law enforcement some authority to go and clear the encampments that were up there," says Socha.
That was 2023. Two years later, people I talked to have noticed the difference.
"We don't see them now. I'm assuming maybe they're gone," said the hiker.
Melissa DesJardin runs a homeless shelter called Hope Harbor. She remembers when the ordinance was passed: "The immediate effects were, obviously, panic — where was everybody going to go?"
At the time, she says, there were no shelters in Hillsdale. That's when Camp Hope was born — a temporary shelter in a yurt behind her thrift store.
"We created a place for them to go," says DesJardin.
I was there when Camp Hope was dismantled by the City last year.
Today, DesJardin continues to do what she can to provide shelter for those in need. She says she's not against the ordinance: "Nobody should be out in this weather in a tent."
…but says a community should prepare a place for them to go, and services and counseling that help them get back on their feet.
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