More people are living in their vehicles in Colorado Springs, and more residents are complaining that they’re parking outside homes and businesses for days or weeks, backers of a proposed addition to municipal law told City Council Monday at a work session.

The Colorado Springs Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team has contacted 95 vehicle campers so far this year, Lt. Ryan Tepley said, based on concerns residents have reported.

“We’re seeing it more and more,” he said, adding that the team receives an average of five calls a day about the issue.

But under current city ordinances, there’s not much law enforcement can do if the vehicle is parked on public property, such as a street where parking is allowed in general.

It’s not illegal to live in a car, truck, van or camper in Colorado Springs. Although sometimes a criminal element such as drugs or theft can be involved, police said, which would warrant a response from authorities.

That’s why City Council member Dave Donelson is part of a group that’s drafted a new ordinance that would ban vehicle camping in city limits, which the entire council heard about at Monday’s meeting.

“The goal is not to punish anyone or make life harder for anyone but to help citizens who live in neighborhoods or at businesses have an orderly, lawful street in front of them without (vehicles) staying there unlawfully, and to get folks into services so we can help them get to a better place,” Donelson said.

The expansion of city code would prohibit motor vehicle camping for more than 24 hours in the same location or within 1,000 feet of that location, said Emily Vandenberg, prosecuting attorney for the city.

Violators would receive a warning on the first contact with police and receive a municipal citation if they did not comply and move within 24 hours, she said

Like what police do with tent campers who violate city code, they also would offer information to vehicle campers about organizations and agencies that provide services such as emergency shelter, transitional housing, gas vouchers, food and other basics.

Would it work, some City Council members wondered? Or would it have an unintended consequence of creating further hardship on people who are homeless, others posed?

Donelson said he’s heard the argument that disallowing parking with a carful of belongings in one spot for more than 24 hours might produce more citations for people who may not show up to court or have the means to pay such a ticket — and therefore shouldn’t be done.

And when he’s talked to the presiding municipal court administrator, Judge HayDen W. Kane II, about that reasoning, Kane reminds him that state laws allow municipal offenders to be held in jail if they don’t appear in court.

And that might be the motivation someone needs to accept help from an organization with the goal of getting back on a stable track.

“Is this a perfect solution? Perhaps not. Is it better than what we do now? Hell yes, it’s an improvement,” Donelson said. “They get cited, but it’s also a technique to allow some leverage to use the services to seek treatment … or maybe they’ll get tired of moving every day and decide to do something else.”

Vandenberg said statistics show 61% of people contacted through police outreach through August in homeless camps and on the streets rejected assistance for moving toward exiting homelessness.

A new jail outreach program talked with 47 people over a two-month period, she said. And navigators from the Fire Department’s Homeless Outreach Program that are stationed at a resource table at the municipal courthouse saw 227 people through September of this year, compared with 274 people in that time last year.

That translates to “about 10% of court-goers being actively engaged in resource programs,” Vandenberg said, from getting a new identification card to signing up for federal benefits to applying for housing.

“I want to be mindful that we’re not adding to the problem, we’re solving a problem,” said Kimberly Gold, a councilmember who was elected in April. “We all want our unhoused residents to get assistance… it’s tough, I’m riding the trails and seeing folks all over; it’s not how we want people in our community to live.”

Councilmember David Leinweber said while he fundamentally favors the idea of the new ordinance, he’s concerned that it’s not the right approach.

“Something like this might push them along their way to not have a car, if they get it impounded,” he said. “This is a whole group of people we haven’t been able to ticket. We need justice, and we absolutely need compassion.”

Leinweber called the city’s existing Homelessness Response Plan “garbage” because “there’s no strategic plan in helping people when they’re in desperate situations. We haven’t found a way to do that in the city right now.”

Aimee Cox, the city’s chief housing and homelessness response officer, told City Council that homelessness is increasing in Colorado Springs, yet nonprofits are strapped to meet the demand, and they’re asking what the city’s long-term plan is.

A recent study the city commissioned showed Colorado Springs needs 2,800 supportive housing units and has between 500 and 600, Cox said.

“I think we can all agree that we don’t want people living in vehicles in our neighborhoods,” she said. “It’s not good for our neighborhoods or people living the vehicles. … It’s a really difficult message to say we’re expanding enforcement instead of expanding housing and services.”

Replicating a Safe Parking initiative that’s offered in Denver was underway in Colorado Springs during the pandemic. But the organizing nonprofit, Benefits in Action, could not recruit enough churches and other hosts to commit to providing secure free overnight parking lots with toilets and food for people living in their cars, organizers previously told The Gazette.

Supporters of the proposed ordinance also want to tweak four existing municipal ordinances regarding unlawful urban camping in parks, on public property, within a public stream and cases of trespassing.

Vandenberg said that would consolidate all camping violations into one city code section, clarify definitions of terms, make penalties consistent, absorb camping in city parks into the camping on public property section, add legal protections and include the prohibition on vehicle camping.

The modifications likely will be up for a vote at the Nov. 11 City Council meeting as an action item.