Fairfax plans to develop anti-camping ordinance

Fairfax officials plan to develop an anti-camping ordinance to abate a controversial encampment near Contratti Park.

The Town Council directed Janet Coleson, the town attorney, to draft an ordinance banning camping on all public property. The council acted during its meeting on Wednesday following a staff presentation on homelessness in the town.

The town’s report said 17 homeless people live in Fairfax. Prior surveys counted 13 in 2022, five in 2019 and 17 in 2015.

Fairfax residents recently held a protest over the camp next to Contratti Park encroaching on the downtown ballfield.

Coleson said recent case law indicated that an ordinance would guide specific requirements for providing shelter when camp closures were enforced. Coleson also cited noticing requirements regarding camp definitions, cleanups and equipment.

“If you want someone to not be here, you have to give them some other place where they can be,” Coleson said. “Tell them where they can go. And that is a shelter bed.”

Town Manager Heather Abrams said an implementation timeline and budget considerations would be presented alongside the ordinance, probably at the Dec. 4 council meeting.

“I think there is a window here where we can have clarity around the resolution of the encampment in swift order, like in the coming months,” said Counilmember Chance Cutrano. “That’s what the public wants to know, that it isn’t just some revolving door behind the Pavilion that will be here indefinitely and is just the new abnormal of the housing crisis and the homelessness crisis in California.”

During the public comment portion of the council meeting, one speaker, Sean Fitzgerald, said the situation at the camp is untenable because of crimes in the downtown and that the town’s analysis minimized the crisis. He played a video of an argument.

“The violence and screaming there next to children is close to insanity,” he said. “The crimes of the encampment are not always reported to and attributed to the encampment.”

A town staff report said there have been four allegations of theft involving camp occupants. The items claimed to be stolen included a phone, a Bluetooth speaker and a lawn chair. Only one allegation was substantiated, and the lawn chair was returned, the report said.

One enforcement issue included an camper who had an outstanding warrant in 2022. Other reports included intoxication; trash or human waste in a nearby creek; small fires; fights; or behavioral issues.

Fitzgerald said the town has not enforced ordinances that could have closed the site previously.

Mayor Barbara Coler said the anti-camping ordinance would be more robust that the ordinances on the books.

“There is some perception out there that nothing has been done,” she said. “There has been a lot done.”

Vice Mayor Lisel Blash said she hoped the residents were treated humanely.

“It’s very hard to afford housing and the goal is to get them into housing, but if they have nowhere to move they stay in the shelter for a long time,” Blash said.