Highlights of the Fort Smith Board of Directors Meeting 3/11/25
At the Fort Smith Board of Directors study session held 3-11-25 at the Elm Grove Community Center in Martin Luther King Park with Director Kemp attending remotely and Director Christina Catsavis absent, the Board conducted 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.
Director Kemp suggested that wording be added to the document directing the Mayor to address “breaks of decorum immediately” via reminder or even censure. He also suggested an addition regarding a “mediation approach” on deadlocked issues and issues where the vote is going to be 4-3 to give pause “for potential compromise options.”
The Board had a discussion regarding homelessness.
There was 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. Responding to Director Rego, Police Chief Baker clarified that “See Party” is all calls where an officer is dispatched to talk to someone about a nondescript issue and that they are often calls from someone who works at the Campus and often not a call that involves a criminal offense.
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%.
Police Chief Baker said of homelessness and homeless related crime that the “Police Department is doing everything we can to address the issue.”
Director Martin pointed out that the police calls to Next Step average one every other day and average 2.14 per day to Hope Campus . He noted that 2024 saw higher calls across all three areas and asked why. The Police Department in-house crime analyst answered that a lot of that increase is attributed to increased police activity in the area including added bike patrols. She said that the majority of the police contacts were self-initiated and that more patrols contributed to more contacts. Director Martin asked if the offenders who were arrested a large number of times were from this area or not. The crime analyst said that she did not do a background check on each of them to see where they came from. Baker said that the department could make a reasonable effort to find out that information. Baker agreed that the increased calls was due to the increased police presence downtown, noting that downtown is the most heavily policed area of Fort Smith. He said that some of the homeless probably came from somewhere else, but have been here a while. While he acknowledged that the homeless are a “significant drain” on police and fire resources, he noted that the “number of serious crimes is not that high” and that the victims of homeless criminals are mostly within the homeless population themselves.
Sharon Chapman, Director of Next Step, said of the top 3 individuals arrested at Next Step that 2 out of the 3 are “absolutely homegrown” rather than from elsewhere.
Former Hope Campus Director Chris Joannides mentioned that there has been a nationwide increase in homelessness this year of 19%, yet Hope Campus has only seen a 6% increase. He said that according to the recent point-in-time count, 82% of the homeless population in Fort Smith have lived here a year or more. The new Director of Hope Campus Casey Wilson said that Hope Campus got 18 people into housing this year. He said that the facility has 140 beds, 60 of which are emergency beds and the other 80 are for people who are participating in the campus’s program to work towards self-sufficiency.
Director Rego expressed his thanks to Hope Campus, especially for their providing a warm place to go during extreme cold weather.
Director Kemp mentioned that Hope Campus was full 4 days after opening, indicating to him that its existence didn’t attract people from elsewhere. He said “This is our problem.” He said that the idea “we have this homelessness because of service providers” is “not true.” He suggested “We can intensify prosecution” of repeat criminal offenders.
Phil White with the Central Business Improvement District (CBID) spoke and mentioned the good service that is being done by the extra police presence downtown. He voiced concerns about the “duplication of services” in charitable services to the homeless downtown and encouraged providers to “consolidate all the services.” Of the rights of property owners, he said “That’s my concern.” He expressed support for an ordinance like the one defeated in December to at least “remove the visible” signs of homelessness downtown and improve the neighborhood’s image.
Keith Lau with the CBID said that homelessness is “a very complicated problem” He advocated for an ordinance and enforcement saying that “Sleeping on sidewalks is not ok.” and that at minimum people can’t “camp out in front of our businesses.”
White added that an ordinance wouldn’t just be for downtown, but would also prohibit camping in all public rights of way all over town.
Both White and Lau, speaking on behalf of the CBID, expressed support for an ordinance.
Director Martin asked Lau what other cities are doing well in relation to homelessness that could be implemented in Fort Smith. Lau did not have examples or inspiration to offer, but said that the Grants Pass ordinance being upheld by the Supreme Court “paves the way” for a similar ordinance here. He said that an ordinance would push the people that are homeless towards services that provide care. He said that Fort Smith is “one of the few cities in the country where no one’s gonna go hungry if they’re living on the street.”
Director Kemp presented in the agenda packet a proposed 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 also proposed steps for enforcement and “compassionate application” of the ordinance. Key differences between this new proposed ordinance and 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 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 include allowing a designated camping area with a metal pavilion on a poured concrete pad with a privacy fence around it at the Hope Campus and managed by Hope Campus, 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. Director Kemp said he is “not advocating bringing back the previous ordinance” but instead for a “service based compassionate approach” of “leading people” to a safe option. His proposed ordinance would give police direction other than going straight to penalization. He said that the public feeding permit part is just about “street feeding” not feeding inside the service agencies. He said that it would require safety training like is required for food trucks and restaurants. He said “Food is not the problem.”
Director Settle mentioned that the ordinance that mirrors the one from Grants Pass has already been vetted and passed by the Supreme Court. He expressed concerns that a different ordinance might face legal challenges. Director Kemp said that the Grants Pass ordinance goes beyond what is proposed by the new proposed ordinance, that the new one is a “softer approach.”
Director of Neighborhood Services Gard spoke. He mentioned that his department has seen an increase in homeless encampments. He said that in 2024 his department did enforcement on 29 encampments. In 2025 so far, they have already done 20 enforcements. He said that the last 5 camps they made contact with were “large” and “sophisticated”. His department staff asked residents in those camps where they came from and after some prodding it was learned that they came from Conway, Tulsa, Little Rock, and Bakersfield, CA, and “not one came from Fort Smith.” He said his department directs residents to non-profit service provider agencies including Hope Campus. He said that they were told by encampment residents that they are “not going to go there.” Some encampment residents started at Hope Campus but left because of “the environment” at the campus. Gard said “We are chasing our tail constantly.” He mentioned the property owners where encampments are set up having to spend thousands of dollars to clean up their property.
Mayor McGill asked about the population of the camps. Gard answered that they are usually 8-16 people.
Gard mentioned that on March 4, 2025 squatting was criminalized by State law statewide. He said that the Neighborhood Services Department does not intend to change their enforcement right now in light of the new law unless directed to do so. Director Martin mentioned that the new law means that there will no longer be a need for property owners to post signs to make squatting on their property illegal and make the law enforceable.
During the Citizens Forum section of the meeting, Steven Kurtz spoke regarding homelessness. He expressed support for the change in the new proposed ordinance that tries to avoid involving the homeless in the criminal justice system as much as possible. He voiced his support for “golden rule ethics” in dealing with the homeless issue. He advocated for a “housing first” model because it is so complex to deal with other issues while contending with not having stable housing. He expressed support for emergency shelter, transitional housing, and “viable long term housing.”
Whitney Cunningham spoke regarding his own personal experience with homelessness in Fort Smith in 2017. He said that being homeless is “incredibly difficult” and that homelessness is an issue “nobody will get the full picture of till it happens to them.” He expressed support for the new proposed ordinance and said “compassion first is what is needed.”
Chris Cadelli spoke in support of the new proposed ordinance calling it a “reasonable approach” with “backbone” to encourage homeless individuals to get the help they need.
Krystal Cadelli spoke. She voiced “sympathy” for the homeless. She mentioned that she recently drove by Hope Campus and saw people working on repairing their van in the parking lot that appeared to her to be “MS 13 gang members.” She said that ICE has arrested MS 13 gang members in Fort Smith. She expressed concerns for the safety of Hope Campus residents, especially female residents. She also spoke to express concerns about water rates, especially that residents outside the City are paying less for water than residents inside the City. Director Martin said that there is threat of a lawsuit if the rates are raised on the outside users without also raising rates on Fort Smith users. He said the City “can’t raise on them and not raise on ourselves.”
Andy Posterick spoke to encourage the Directors when they are voting on zoning for new developments to consider the revenue to costs ratio and the value per acre of different types of developments. He mentioned that multi-family housing’s value per acre is “pretty good.” He said that big box retail stores have a low value per acre. He called mixed use developments “amazingly a money maker for Fort Smith.”
