An official is proposing a change to city codes that would make it illegal to camp in certain areas within Saratoga Springs, raising concerns over the future of the city’s unhoused residents.
As is, Saratoga Springs city code prohibits blocking sidewalks by sitting or lying down, with the exceptions of experiencing a medical emergency or watching a parade.
Still, downtown regulars know that panhandlers, buskers, summer revelers, and even some unhoused city residents can be found on the sidewalks throughout the city.
First-term Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll, who won his seat with GOP backing, plans to expand that code to also prohibit camping on certain public property.
“It’s not humane for us to encourage folks to live on the street. We should be encouraging them to be getting into safe housing and provide those folks with the dignity they deserve. Also, we need to be respectful and responsible to our business community as well. We did a survey with our business community last year and certainty 75% of the issues are involved with homelessness and panhandling. But I want to be clear, we are focusing not on someone’s status but the activities that they’re engaged in,” said Coll.
Coll says the update is necessary.
“We don’t have an ordinance now, right, to stop anyone from pitching a tent up and down Broadway and I think we need to do that to keep the city safe and orderly and to respect the business community. We need to have an ordinance where people cannot camp up and down Broadway,” said Coll.
Coll says the language of the new ordinance isn’t finalized, but it will aim to clarify what constitutes as an obstruction.
“If a sidewalk is 25 feet wide and someone pitches a tent on five feet of the sidewalk, is that an obstruction or not? That obviously depends on who you’re speaking with. So, we wanted to make sure that that’s clear in our officers’ eyes,” said Coll.
Sherie Grinter has been working with unhoused city residents for years and served on former Mayor Ron Kim’s homeless task force, which identified a number of potential locations for a permanent shelter within the city. So far, no action has been taken on the task force’s recommendations.
“Right now if you sit on the sidewalk you can get a ticket, it’s on the books. But, if you are watching the parade this last week, you can sit on the sidewalks. So, you’re targeting one population,” said Grinter.
Grinter says this ordinance could take the city several steps back on an issue it’s struggled to address.
“There’s a housing shortage. People with minimum wage jobs cannot live even close to Saratoga Springs, it’s getting so expensive. So, until we solve the housing issue our most vulnerable, our unhoused and some of them have been unhoused for a dozen years, we need to solve that before we start punishing,” said Grinter.
RISE Housing and Support Services has run the city’s only low-barrier shelter since 2022. It was originally pitched as a temporary solution before the city moved a shelter into a permanent location.
In May, the organization warned it would have to cut services at the Adelphi Street shelter short in June without a commitment from the city to fund the shelter through 2026.
The organization eventually said it would continue services through the end of 2025 after Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran put out an RFP for a new shelter to be funded by the city through next year.
A public input session will be held July 1st.
