And there is little regular people could do about it.
I shouldn’t be shocked. But, I am. Only people who truly believe it is more important to protect the mentally ill and drug addicted over families and children and decent folks would ever support a bill like HB 1429.
If HB1429 becomes law it would turn public spaces in Illinois into homeless encampments.
The bill allows the homeless to occupy playgrounds, parkways, forest preserves, your neighborhood park or other public places indefinitely.
The bill literally says:
Life-sustaining activities includes, but are not limited to, moving, resting, sitting, standing, lying down, sleeping, protecting oneself from the elements, eating, drinking (excluding alcohol), and storing personal property as needed to shelter oneself.
The bill says authorities are allowed to request they move to allow access to others or if there are scheduled event there but could only remove a homeless person in cases of emergencies defined as an “Imminent risk that death, serious illness, or severe injury to a person or destruction of property” would occur by letting the homeless person remain.
But before removal, authorities would have to give a 3-day notice and offer them transportation, social services, and other resources to solve their housing needs.
Let’s be clear – The homeless are already offered help through multiple non-profits and social service agencies. Just one grant in this year’s state budget will spend $27 million on homeless prevention. Another grant – the emergency and transitional housing program will spend over $90 million. And that’s just two of many homeless grant programs. Maybe Democrats should assess the effectiveness of these grants before letting the homeless takeover parks.
Most homelessness is a result of people with deep mental health or drug problems. Allowing them to overrun public parks doesn’t help them, it destroys any sense of goodwill between community members and those in need.
One has to wonder if the bill was written to make the camps the illegal aliens set up okay.
California has allowed these encampments and they have been a complete failure. San Francisco elected a new mayor on the promise to clean-up the streets that had been overtaken with homeless.
HB1429 is opposed by mayors and managers across the state, the Chiefs of Police, the Sheriff’s Association, and various local governments including park districts and forest preserves.
The bill defies commonsense. It is absolutely insane that anyone would even suggest this bill as a solution to homelessness. Democrat Rep. Rep. Kevin John Olickal is the chief sponsor. He is joined by 30 other Democrats including the Speaker of the House Emanuel “Chris” Welch. Other sponsors are as follows: Dagmara Avelar – Lindsey LaPointe – Mary Beth Canty, Lilian Jiménez, Rita Mayfield, Suzanne M. Ness, Bob Morgan, Will Guzzardi, Kelly M. Cassidy, Barbara Hernandez, Michelle Mussman, Abdelnasser Rashid, Hoan Huynh, Anne Stava, Laura Faver Dias, Carol Ammons, Lisa Davis, Nicolle Grasse, Norma Hernandez, Theresa Mah, Edgar González, Jr., Michael Crawford, Nabeela Syed, Diane Blair-Sherlock, La Shawn K. Ford, Camille Y. Lilly, Justin Cochran, Yolonda Morris and Marcus C. Evans, Jr.
Contact your state legislator and tell them to vote NO on HB1429.