A growing number of people dealing with homelessness in Lowell are facing arrest under a new city ordinance that effectively outlaws encampments on public land.
The ordinance enacted last month after a 10-1 vote by the Lowell City Council bans camping and sleeping on public property when shelter space is available. The city is required to first offer shelter, but if individuals decline, they can face fines and arrests. They can also be arrested for re-establishing a campsite.
“Since the camping ban has gone into effect, we’ve had at least ten people arrested,” said Patricia Hiort, leader of Matthew 25, an advocacy group that supports the unhoused in Lowell six days a week with food, clothing and other supplies — sometimes replacing items that are seized during encampment raids.
The Lowell Sun previously reported that many homeless people were told the ordinance wasn’t going to be enforced until Dec. 9, but records show the arrests started earlier.
City Councilor Wayne Jenness cast the sole vote against the ordinance. He represents a part of Lowell that includes the South Common, where an encampment had attracted significant attention.
“All of these things that [other] people didn’t want to have happen in the parks were already illegal by other ordinances,” Jenness said, referring to a city rule on park closure times. “I couldn’t see the logic in adding another ordinance to the pile.”
Hiort said one arrest targeted a man with a leg injury who was sleeping in the doorway of an abandoned building. “The officer kicked him right where he injured his leg,” said Hiort. She described two more situations where unhoused senior citizens with dementia were arrested for trespassing, including a man in his 70s.
“He requires medical assistance. And to have him shipped away in that manner, that’s wrong,” she said. Lowell Police did not respond to an interview request.
The ordinance and its enforcement come as the city’s primary shelter, at the Lowell Transitional Living Center, has recently failed health and fire inspections. Hiort described getting bedbugs on her arm after spending a few minutes speaking to a client in the shelter.
“Who are we to demand that they go there? The violence in that shelter, the bugs in that shelter, the rats in that shelter— how are they expected to live there?” she said.
Councilor Jenness said he doesn’t believe the ordinance would have been proposed if the U.S. Supreme Court hadn’t issued a decision earlier this year allowing municipalities to make their own rules on banning unhoused people from camping in public spaces.
“That kind of really opened the door for this kind of ordinance the city implemented in Lowell and other cities around the commonwealth,” he said.
Jenness said he’s seen posts on social media and heard concerns from fellow councilors about homeless people being in libraries and other public spaces during the day.
“Folks aren’t just going to disappear by nature of this ban,” he said. “They’ve got to find ways to exist within the city because they have to. People are going to fight to survive.”
Lowell’s mayor and city manager did not respond to requests for comment.
