Dear Friends,

The Mobile City Council addressed a proposed ordinance sponsored by Councilors Reynolds and Daves. This proposed ordinance will make it illegal for people who are homeless to camp, sleep, or store belongings anywhere on public property including underneath bridges, railroad or public right of ways, and parks within Mobile. The penalty for unauthorized use of these city properties will be arrest, fines of $100-$500 and up to six months in jail. If this ordinance is passed, it will be a direct assault on some of the most vulnerable citizens in our city, the homeless.

There are not enough shelters in Mobile to house the hundreds of homeless citizens. If it is against the law to sleep on private property and public property, where can the homeless go? When I posed this question to one of sponsors of this ordinance, he replied, “I don’t care!” In the thirty years that I have worked with the homeless in Mobile, I have never experienced an administration that was so hostile toward the homeless. In the past eight years this administration has destroyed homeless camps and did everything they can to push the homeless west of Interstate-65.

Churches, faith based organizations, and agencies that serve our community have signed on to oppose this anti-homeless ordinance and these numbers are growing.

We are asking everyone to sign this petition to let your city council representative know that you DO NOT support this and that you urge them to VOTE NO on this ordinance. Also, please make arrangements to attend the city council meetings at 10:30 am every Tuesday until this ordinance is defeated. It is imperative that leaders of the faith community have a substantial presence at these meetings to show the Church’s opposition to this attack on our fellow citizens who are unhoused.

Your support in this matter will be greatly appreciated.