ORANGE — The Selectboard this week agreed to have the police chief draft a bylaw pertaining to encampments on town-owned land after he expressed a need for one.
James Sullivan approached Selectboard members at their Oct. 7 meeting to gauge if they were interested in having a local regulation that could be used to deter people from camping out on public property, which he said has been a problem.
“As we all know, we’ve had some issues in our town parks with camping, with people living there, staying there,” he said.
Sullivan said that he and Cara Iacoponi, executive assistant to Town Manager Matthew Fortier, have reviewed some regulations that were adopted in Greenfield after at least 20 homeless individuals set up camp at the Greenfield Common in the summer of 2018 until the city forced them to vacate.
Sullivan mentioned he is interested in having a bylaw, which would have to be adopted by Town Meeting voters, that would require a permit for any type of camping — regardless of whether it entails a tent, air mattress, RV or anything else.
“It would give us an option to use to try … to stop some of the activities from happening,” he explained. “It’s not a really difficult policy to draft up.”
The chief said requiring a permit would enable the Boy Scouts to camp on town land and allow for people to stay overnight at the Orange Municipal Airport during the annual Yankee Engin-uity Show & Flea Market in June.
“What I’m concerned about is, at some point, somebody moves into the backside of the airport, and they’re camping out there and living in the woods out there,” Sullivan said.
According to Sullivan, the problem mainly affects Butterfield Park, where people have been known to sleep in the baseball dugouts, and Memorial Park. Trash and debris could be seen in a Butterfield Park dugout on Thursday afternoon.
Selectboard Vice Chair Reid Jeffries “Jeff” Anderson Jr. said residents have expressed concerns to him about homeless people spending nights at Memorial Park, and charging their phones and operating radios using electricity from the holiday lights there in the winter. He mentioned he lived in Greenfield during that city’s homeless encampment issue and he wants to give Sullivan’s department the tools to combat the problem in Orange.
“That’s exactly how I’m looking at this, as a tool,” Sullivan responded.
He said he would like to make it an arrestable offense to camp on town land without a permit. He stressed that he does not want to see people be arrested, but he would like some leverage to incentivize people not to camp on public property. Sullivan compared his desired bylaw to speeding laws and the loose animal bylaw, saying officers will have discretion over whether to issue tickets.
The chief noted that having a fine-based bylaw would be pointless, as homeless people generally have little ability to pay fines. He said he understands mental illness is often a catalyst for homelessness and that a bylaw could be used as a last resort to get people into the court system so they can access programs that are designed to help them.
Selectboard member Julie Davis acknowledged it is unsafe for homeless people to camp out on town property, but said there is nowhere else for them to go and there is often insufficient access to social services for the homeless. She also mentioned a person’s belongings and pets would have to be confiscated by police and kept following an arrest. She offered to help Sullivan draft the bylaw.
The chief said people and businesses will be more likely to invest in Orange if the town deals with the homeless encampment problem.
“The optics of this is something we have to combat,” he said.
