The Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission voted on a new ordinance amendment addressing public area interference that could affect the homeless population.
Item 11 on the agenda for the recent Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission meeting was an amendment to a previous ordinance that addressed right-of-way use in public areas. The amendment provides more detailed definitions for what constitutes an interference in public areas.
Commissioner Dexter Fisher clarified that this amendment is not an attack on the unhoused.
“This is not to criminalize our homeless population,” he said, “However, though, I think that those businesses downtown and other places in Athens should not have their business impeded because somebody is sleeping on their doorstep.”
Commissioner Tiffany Taylor of District 3 emphasized the need for ACCPD to be part of this conversation, as they will be the ones enforcing the amended ordinance, and she hopes that the people the ordinance affects will be treated with care.
She said, “At the end of the day, it’s about the people and a lot of them have mental health issues or just fell on hard times and have nowhere to go, and I just want us to be mindful to not just fill our jails up with unhoused residents because we don’t wanna look at them.”
All of the commissioners voted in favor of the amendment.
