New Des Moines Homeless Ordinance Includes $50 Fine

The Des Moines City Council has initially approved an ordinance that would impose a $50 fine on people caught sleeping in public and refusing to leave places such as doorways and alleys.

Des Moines City Councilman Chris Coleman helped draft the plan. “When the police ask them to go further, we expect people to obey the police and there has to be a penalty,” Coleman said. “We made it the least penalty possible with a way to make sure that people who can’t pay the fine won’t pay the fine.”

The ordinance also allows the city to remove personal property from an illegal campsite three days after a notice is given. Des Moines and other cities have begun rewriting regulations after a U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that cities can ban sleeping and camping in public places. Sarah Schuler, the human resources director for a Des Moines advertising agency, told council members that she has begun talking to employees about safety outside their downtown Des Moines office.

“We all know that we have challenges in a city,” she said. “We all understand that, but since COVID and since my time with Flynn Wright, the incidents have really continued to increase.”

Alan Callanan of Des Moines, who also addressed the council during the public comment period, said the ordinance criminalizes homelessness.

“People with fines and criminal records are going to have a harder time getting out of homelessness,” Callanan said. “Everyone on the council knows this isn’t going to solve the rising homelessness in the city and across the country, but some on the council clearly want the council to be able to further punish people who are already in a dangerous situation.”

Tom Hromatka, treasurer of a nonprofit that helps the homeless in Des Moines, said the number of homeless people in Iowa’s capital has more than doubled in the past two years and the ordinance is just a band-aid.

“We must aggressively seek long-term alternatives and permanent solutions to this problem,” he said.

The Des Moines City Council must review and approve the ordinance in two more meetings before it goes into effect. The ACLU of Iowa has indicated it will go to court to challenge the ordinance.