Stricter rules regarding public urination and defecation in Greensboro target the homeless community

The city of Greensboro is seeking to change a city ordinance that will allow for stricter punishment for public urination and defecation.

In a press release sent out on Nov. 27, the city called the issue a “major health concern,” noting the “rising number of complaints” from business owners, employees and city workers who are expressing concern over individuals defecating and urinating in streets, walkways, passageways, alleys, and at the entrances and exits of businesses.

“This is simply unfair to those having to clean up human waste from others,” the press release states.

The release also goes on to cite the unhoused community as the source of the problem.

“It is undisputed that some of these violations come from our unhoused community,” the city’s press release states. 

The city is seeking to amend the current ordinances “in a manner that would allow stricter enforcement, up to and including criminal charges” in the “most severe cases.”

“As a city, we have a responsibility to remedy this, and current ordinances that have been in place for years are not addressing the problem, and the number of violations is rising,” said Greensboro’s City Manager Trey Davis. “We are taking a closer look to find new methods to deter the behavior.”

What’s the change?

The ordinance change is on the agenda for Tuesday evening’s city council meeting. According to the city, public walkways, streets, alleys, paths and entrances and exits to businesses are being blocked by people lying, sitting or sleeping in these areas.

The city claims that “in some cases” the Americans with Disabilities Act is being violated when people’s belongings obstruct the sidewalks. 

To combat this, the city intends to amend an ordinance which defines terms such as “impede” and “sidewalk,” as well as dictate that it is “unlawful” to block sidewalks or building entrances. The city’s document supporting the ordinance change on Tuesday’s agenda is unclear on the exact changes that are being proposed for this ordinance, but the goal is to allow city employees to “deter the citizen behaviors that are causing the damage, debris, and waster [sic] to our public assets and public property,” the document states.

According to the city’s release, Cadillac Service Garage co-owner, Jay Jung, claims that the problem has grown “exponentially over the past 8 months or so.” 

“I put in cameras and recorded numerous incidents of people using the bathroom on our sidewalks, walkways and doorways as well as sleeping in those areas,” Jung stated in the release. “Some weeks I was calling police 5 or 6 times in one week. They get them to leave but they always come right back.”

Local business owner Kim Grimsley Ritchy, who has been an outspoken critic of the unhoused community, took to social media on Oct. 16 to post uncensored photos of houseless people going to the restroom on her property and other locations.

A pattern of criminalizing homelessness

There are 641 houseless people in Guilford County according to this year’s Point-In-Time count, an increase from last year’s count of 452 people. While the bus station is open 24/7, the downtown library closes at 9 p.m. on weekdays and 6 p.m. on weekends and doesn’t reopen until 9 a.m. The Interactive Resource Center, once a 24/7 place for houseless people to receive assistance and use facilities such as showers and restrooms, recently scaled back their hours after pressure from the city over increased 911 calls to the center and complaints from local business owners.

In the past several years, the Triad’s cities have implemented several new rules and fines that directly impact the unhoused community.

In 2022, Greensboro leaders passed amendments that bar people from leaving objects in the street or in public spaces. A year later, the NC ACLU charged city leaders with violating the Fourth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments by seizing the property of unhoused people who sought refuge under a bridge near the IRC.

The local patterns reflect changes taking place nationwide.

In July, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Grants Pass v. Johnson, making it easier for municipalities nationwide to fine, ticket or arrest people living unsheltered. 

In a press release by the ACLU, Scout Katovich, staff attorney in the Trone Center for Justice and Equality, stated that “it is hard to imagine a starker example of excessive punishment than fining and jailing a person for the basic human act of sleeping.” 

Similar to Greensboro, leaders in Charlotte recently began reconsidering issuing fines for public defecation and urination. According to the city of Charlotte’s website, in February, city leaders passed eight ordinances, including one that recriminalizes “urination and defecation on certain property.”

But moves like the ones being considered by Greensboro City Council have been found to further marginalize unhoused people, according to researcher Ron Hochbaum, who currently directs the University of the Pacific’s Buccola Family Homeless Advocacy Clinic. In a 2020 paper for UNC School of Law, Hochbaum writes that “the issue of availability and accessibility of bathrooms for homeless individuals is a crisis.”

“That being said, prohibitions on public urination and defecation combined with insufficient access to public bathrooms put homeless individuals in as much legal jeopardy as any other antihomeless law,” he continues.

Instead of criminalizing or penalizing those who defecate or urinate in public, Hochbaum suggests three overarching solutions: increasing availability and accessibility of public bathrooms, leveraging private businesses and challenging or reforming laws.

“Criminalizing homelessness is not solely troublesome because it outlaws innocent behavior which, if performed on private premises, would be considered legal,” Hochbaum writes. “Rather, it is problematic because it is a means by which governments regulate space to exclude those whom the majority deems undesirable. When viewed in this light, it becomes clear that criminalizing homelessness is one facet in the evolution of segregation.”

Greensboro’s city council meeting will be held on Dec. 3 at 5:30 p.m. in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber at Melvin Municipal Office Building, 300 W. Washington St. Interested in signing up to speak? Click here.

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