Letter to the Editor: Camping fines are anything but fine
Trending
Last Tuesday I spoke to the Parkersburg City Council regarding the proposed ordinance to ban camping in the city's public spaces. The council would like to fine people $100-$500 for camping in the parks without a permit. This is clearly targeted toward eliminating the homeless from the parks.
I asked the question, "Where will they go?" I will be the first to admit I do not know everything about the plight of the homeless. But as a teacher who has been in the classroom for over 20 years, I understand human nature well. I have often taught different subjects or grade levels in the same day. I may bring in a prop that is too big to hide and is for one lesson in my day. I don't want students from other classes to play with it. The absolute LAST thing I want to do is say, "Don't go near that prop!" Because the second I do, there is a crowd of curious students checking out what I don't want them to play with.
It's human nature. To keep students away from the prop, I must create an incentive to look at something in another part of the room and not mention the prop at all. I guide the students to the place I want them to be by putting something MORE interesting in another part of the room. For most students, this technique works well. The city council needs to understand human nature. The second you say, "don't do that" people are going to do it. (Same goes for book banning.)
It is not ideal to have people camping in the parks. But if you want them to leave you are going to have to give them an incentive to do so. Apparently, there are empty beds available at the local missions. This shows there is not an incentive to go there. This is likely because the local missions require sobriety for entry.
The city council is opting for a punitive measure as a means of a deterrent. The problem is how many homeless even have ID? How are officers going to write a ticket for someone whose identity cannot be verified? How is anyone reduced to living in a public space going to have the money to pay the fine or even care about the fine? I applaud the city council for attempting to address this very real problem in our community. But I question the effectiveness of the proposed ordinance.
Morally, it bothers me to fine people for existing. If you catch people littering, fine them for littering. Public intoxication? Absolutely fine them. But for eating and sleeping? Why would we fine anyone for performing a normal human function just because they aren't doing it under a roof? I have taught at every grade level, and I learned long ago that young children do not have the ability to reason. Neither do addicts. If an addict knows they must be sober to enter a mission, the reasonable thing to do would be to kick the addiction. But an addict isn't reasonable-their thoughts are ruled by the substances they are using. You can't win a power struggle with a young child, and you can't win a power struggle with an addict.
Hard and fast boundaries are not going to get addicts off the streets. I implore the city council to have a plan in place to provide housing that meets people where they are. Let's house them and help them before we fine them.
Sonya Ashby
Parkersburg