ORDINANCE NO. _________, SERIES 2021
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AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE LOUISVILLE METRO CODE OF ORDINANCES CHAPTERS 92 AND 130 RELATED TO BIAS-RELATED CRIMES AND OFFENSES TO MAKE PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOUSELESSNESS A PROTECTED CLASS (AS AMENDED).
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SPONSORED BY: COUNCIL MEMBERS ARTHUR, DORSEY, CHAMBERS ARMSTRONG, HOLLANDER, GEORGE, ACKERSON, GREEN,
SHANKLIN, AND PURVIS
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WHEREAS, according to the Office of Housing and Urban Development's 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, roughly 580,000 people experienced homelessness in the United States on any given night in 2020; and
WHEREAS, the National Homelessness Law Center, as part of the work done by the National Coalition for the Homeless, releases an annual report called Housing Not Handcuffs. The report analyzes the ordinances of 187 communities across the country that criminalize daily acts of survival for people who are forced to live outdoors; and
WHEREAS, these laws push a cycle of structural violence and social injustice which leads to negative perceptions of people who are homeless. These negative perceptions, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless, further a general lack of compassion and lack of motivation to invest in housing and other systemic solutions to address endemic poverty; and
WHEREAS, the National Coalition for the Homeless reports that in 83 documented incidents of anti-homeless violence between 2018 and 2019, 39 people experiencing homelessness lost their lives in violent attacks; and
WHEREAS, on March 18th, 2018 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, two teens left a birthday party to kill a homeless man for sport. The teens later returned to the party after killing Ronnie Ross, a person experiencing houselessness. Timothy Chavez, 15 years old, and Anthony Gallegos, 17-years-old, bragged to people about how they had shot a "hobo" six times; and
WHEREAS, on November 28, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona, a man was arrested after police said he murde...
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