CITY RESPONSE
Lexington’s mayor and the city’s police chief agree: the new law criminalizing homelessness will not change the city’s “shelter first” strategy.
“We always try to get them into housing first,” said Mayor Linda Gorton. “The first thing that our police do is ask them ‘What do you need? Do you have housing? Can we get you to a shelter?’”
Though the city maintains this approach will not change, Lexington’s Continuum of Care Board, which handles the city’s homeless prevention and intervention efforts, has changed its standard operating procedures to comply with the Act.
During the Board’s Wednesday meeting, Director Jeff Herron said he’d spoken with the city’s law department about how to proceed in compliance with HB 5.
“That bill carries language that we cannot prevent the enforcement, as a local government, of that law,” said Herron.
The Board’s primary worry was that language within their SOP contained specific time frames, offering notices of 5 days and 72 hours before action is taken to remove encampments.
“The concern was that having a specified number of days within a document that is approved by a government board could potentially be constituted as preventing the enforcement.”
The revised SOP says notice will be given within “a reasonable amount of time,” rather than within a set time frame.
“This is to make sure that we are not seen as preventing enforcement,” said Herron, “But still trying to allow us that opportunity to connect persons with services, to still post notices and give advanced notice.”
COMMUNITY RESPONSE AND 2024 HOMELESS AND HOUSING ASSESSMENT REPORT
A new report released by the Central Kentucky Housing and Homeless Initiative found 2410 homeless individuals living in Lexington – nearly triple the 825 counted by the city earlier this year.
Though housing insecurity in Lexington is on the rise, the stark discrepancy between the numbers isn’t due to an increase, as the city’s official count was done five months after the initiative’s count. Director of the Catholic Action Center Ginny Ramsey says a major obstacle is that the city’s count is conducted by the Continuum of Care – the same body which carries out camp removals.
“Our worry about that is that [the discrepancy] is going to be even greater under House Bill 5,” said Ramsey. “They’re not going to be as visible. People will know how to hide and hiding means you don’t get services. Hiding means that, when people are camping together and, say, one of them has a medical emergency, they’re going to be afraid to call 911 because they can be arrested.”
The Safer Kentucky Act requires cities to criminalize street camping and sleeping in a car for more than 12 hours. In remarks delivered at the release of the Initiative’s report, Lexington attorney John Landon called the new law “cruel beyond measure,” and said it allocates resources which could be used to prevent homelessness toward prosecuting it instead.
“Why does this law exist? In short, it is to remove those suffering from the eyes of the public,” said Landon. “It is to stop them from having to confront an uncomfortable truth while enjoying a dinner out.”
The Initiative’s count was conducted last summer in partnership with community volunteers and the Street Voice Council, a group of individuals experiencing homelessness in Lexington.
While the city found 825 total homeless individuals, its definition of “homelessness” was narrower than that used by the Initiative’s report. The city’s Winter PIT Count used the HUD’s definition of homelessness: “in a shelter, transitional housing, or place not meant for human habitation such as park or car.”
The Central Kentucky Housing & Homeless Initiative included those in the HUD’s definition, as well as those temporarily living in motels, couch surfing, and individuals who were incarcerated or in treatment at the time of the count, but had no home to return to once released. The count also included the 1,097 Fayette County Public School students reported by the McKinney-Vento Program as homeless to the Department of Education over the 2023-24 school year.
Faith leaders who spoke at the press conference brought forward community solutions combatting “NIMBY” (“not in my backyard”) attitudes. Reverend Richard Gaines of Consolidated Baptist Church on Russell Cave Road put forward a call to action, inviting community members to a meeting on August 22 at 7 to develop a “Yes, in God’s backyard” plan to serve Lexington’s homeless population. Examples were provided of ways other faith-based groups across the country had stepped up, including using their property to build tiny homes, allowing communal bathroom and kitchen access, and providing safe parking spaces for families living in cars to shelter.
