Agenda Highlights 3/11/25

At the Fort Smith Board of Directors study session to be held 3-11-25 at the Elm Grove Community Center in Martin Luther King Park, the Board will conduct their annual review of the Board of Directors Best Practices Document. This list of non-binding guidance suggestions includes things like a code of conduct and ethics and the responsibilities for the Board of Directors.

The Board will have a discussion regarding homelessness. There will be a presentation from the CBID regarding the ordinance against camping on City property similar to the Grants Pass, Oregon ordinance that was voted down by the Board at the 12-17-24 meeting and the impact of that decision to not adopt the ordinance on downtown businesses. There will be discussion about Hope Campus including about its future, and the objectives and expectations of the facility and how those align with the City’s objectives and expectations.

There will be a presentation from the Police Department regarding crime involving homeless individuals, the downtown entertainment district, Hope Campus, and Next Step. From 1-1-2022 to 1-31-2025, there were 945 incidents and offense reports in the Downtown Entertainment District. Of those the top arrest categories were for All Other Criminal (the highest numbers of those being for criminal trespass, harassment, and terroristic threatening), followed by theft, simple assault, and vandalism.

In the same time period there were 427 incidents and offense reports within 1000 ft of Next Step with the most arrests being for Failure to Appear and the second most being for Public Intoxication.

In the same time period, there were 901 incidents and offense reports within 1000 ft of Hope Campus. The top police calls there were See Party, Subject Refusing to Leave, Check Welfare, Disorderly Conduct, and Suicidal Threat.

During that time period, there were 2158 total arrests throughout the city as a whole of people experiencing homelessness (those whose residence was recorded as homeless and those whose address was recorded as Next Step or Hope Campus). Of those, there were 1,024 unique persons, with 648 individuals being arrested once, 166 being arrested twice, and 210 being arrested 3 or more times. One individual was arrested 29 times and two were arrested 24 times. Arrests of homeless people made up 10% of the total arrests during that time period. Arrests at Next Step made up about 3% of all arrests of homeless individuals and arrests at Hope Campus made up 6%.

Director Kemp will present an ordinance prohibiting camping on City property and sleeping in doorways, streets, alleys and sidewalks if interfering with pedestrian or vehicular traffic or ingress and egress of others. He will also propose steps for enforcement and “compassionate application” of the ordinance. Key differences between this new proposed ordinance and the one defeated in December include 30 days for storage of removed important personal property (identification documents, medical supplies, and essential clothing) and a 24-72 hour hold (instead of a 72 hour hold) at the City’s discretion of all other personal property (with hazardous or unsanitary items being disposed of immediately), prioritizing outreach first by requiring that City officials “make reasonable efforts” to engage with the individuals and offer them services prior to enforcing the ordinance (like with removal of property and/or criminal citations), and prohibiting sleeping in doorways, sidewalks, streets, and alleys only if it interferes with public access or pedestrian or vehicular movement (instead of the previous proposed ordinance that banned it entirely). Proposed steps for “compassionate application” of the ordinance to be discussed will include allowing a designated camping area with a privacy fence around it at the Hope Campus and managed by Hope, setting up secure personal property storage in the Hope warehouse to store property in an organized manner including a color coded system to prioritize the essential items (including ID documents and medical supplies) to be stored longer than other general items to be discarded in 72 hours, the City providing a roll off dumpster to be emptied monthly at Hope Campus to deal with discarded personal property, and establishing a permit that would be required to conduct public feedings.