Iowa House lawmakers advanced a bills to criminalize homelessness Wednesday, making unauthorized camping on public property a simple misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and up to an $855 fine. Lawmakers in the Senate effectively killed an identical bill on Wednesday.

The bills would also prohibit cities and counties from creating ordinances discouraging the enforcement of the law but stipulates that cities and counties could create diversion programs.

The bills would allow cities to create designated campsites for people experiencing homelessness to camp at to avoid penalties if they lack room in a shelter or do not want to shelter. The bills would require the campsites to have the names of those camping; have access to clean water, restrooms, and a shower; ensure safety and cleanliness; and be alcohol and drug-free.

The bills would also require organizations that operate shelters and provide services to people experiencing homelessness to keep the area free of drugs or be charged with an aggravated misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison and up to $8,540 in fines.

The bills would allow the Iowa attorney general to bring civil action to enforce the bills and would allow business owners, residents, and the attorney general to bring civil action to enforce provisions related to the designated campsites cities can create.

Proponents say it will help public safety

National conservative special interest groups such as the Cicero Institute advocated for the bill, saying it would deter public camping and wouldn’t result in many fines but would help ensure public safety.

Dennis Tibben, a lobbyist with the Cicero Institute, said the institute requested the bill and that it mirrors legislation in other Republican-led states.

“Over the past year, several Iowa communities have engaged in discussions regarding the public safety concerns of street camping and how to better support Iowans struggling with homelessness,” Tibben said. “The bill before you is intended to help with these efforts by ensuring consistent statewide policies, including basic minimum services and supports, greater transparency and how public homelessness dollars are being utilized, and, most importantly, creating a pathway to stability and self-sustainability for more Iowans.”

Advocates rally against the bills

Organizations and advocates for Iowans experiencing homelessness packed the subcommittee hearings on the bills on Wednesday, where they rallied against the bills saying they would not solve homelessness and would reverse progress on the issue.

Des Moines enacted a ban on camping in public last year, sparking outrage and criticism from the community and advocates. However, Scott Sanders, the city manager for Des Moines, said they had multiple levels of support for individuals experiencing homelessness before penalties.

Sanders said the state’s proposal fails to take local control into account and is penalty-driven.

“Our ordinance does include 10 other provisions that deal with preventative measures, additional service levels for our existing homeless to make sure that we are assisting them, along with the ordinance itself,” Sanders said. “This bill, though, is penalty-driven to enforce compliance, and there’s really a lack of the preventative side.”

Sanders said the provisions in the bill that could press criminal charges against service providers could result in more people sleeping in the streets because they would not be able to provide services.

“That would only exacerbate the problems that we are facing at the cities and increase the improper camping, and that would be very contrary to what I think the intent is here for the bill,” Sanders said.

Angie Arthur, the executive director of Homeward Iowa, a group focusing on ending homelessness in Des Moines, said the bill would cost taxpayers a lot of money to implement the bill and wouldn’t solve the issue at hand.

“We acknowledge the pressure that you are facing with constituents to help people who are sleeping outside. And we agree more can be done,” Arthur said. “Clearing encampments without connecting people to housing and services doesn’t solve the problem. It just moves it to other parts of Iowa.”

Dave Stone, a lobbyist with the United Way of Central Iowa, a nonprofit focused on improving central Iowa communities, said the bill in its current form would cost much more than further investing in supportive housing and other programs.

Currently, the state only invests $1.7 million in funding aimed at combating homelessness.

“These are individuals — these are families,” Stone said. “They have nowhere to go. They deserve our help and not our shame.”

Iowa Senate kills the bill, House presses on, says bill needs to be fixed

Iowa Senate lawmakers tabled their version of the bill, Senate Study Bill 1195, during a subcommittee hearing Wednesday afternoon.

Sens. Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, and Dave Sires, R-Cedar Falls, both refused to approve the advancement of the bill on Wednesday due to concerns over how the bill would impact unhoused individuals in need of services, not fines.

“$800 fines for people who really don’t have any money or down on their luck?” Sires said. “We’ve got to think of something else. We’ve got to have some amendments to this, or I’d just go ahead and pull out all these pages to start over, because this is not fair to people, whether they’re down on their luck or they’re having a problem.”

Weiner said the bill was being pushed by a national special interest group, and it didn’t fit an Iowa solution.

“This is not an Iowa bill or an Iowa solution,” Weiner said. “It is an outside bill that has been parachuted in here. If we want an Iowa solution, we can convene a group of all stakeholders in the intercession, including people who have experienced homelessness, and sit down and look at solutions because they exist.”

Without Sires’ signature, the bill cannot move forward with a recommendation to pass from the subcommittee. There is a number of legislative tricks to revive the bill, but according to the Senate Local Government committee schedule for Thursday, the bill is not scheduled to be considered by the committee.

Without a committee vote on the bill, it will likely be killed by legislative deadlines in the Senate, though legislative procedure can be used to revive any bills once a deadline is passed.

House lawmakers are moving full steam ahead with the bill. A vote is planned for Thursday morning to move the House version of the bill, House Study Bill 286, out of committee, getting it past the first legislative deadline of the session on Friday.

The subcommittee vote to advance the bill on Wednesday was 2-1 with Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque, voting against the bill.