BROCKTON — New laws against camping and loitering could pass city council on Tuesday, marking a new chapter in how Brockton deals with homelessness.
The new rules would set fines of $200 per day for illegal camping and $50 a day for loitering, among many other provisions.
The proposals come as some downtown Brockton residents and business owners say negative effects from unhoused people are worse now than they’ve ever experienced.
A downtown Brockton health center that helps many of the city’s homeless residents came out strongly against both measures. In a letter to city councilors, Dr. Maria G. Celli, deputy CEO of Brockton Neighborhood Health Center, made the case for a different approach.
“The criminalization of homelessness through anti-camping and anti-loitering laws disconnects people from critical medical and social services, increases illness and death among unsheltered people, exacerbates the cycle of poverty, and creates substantial expenses for the City for enforcement with little resolution to the issue of unsheltered homelessness,” she wrote.