STERLING – As Sterling’s City Council considers whether to establish an ordinance to ban sleeping and camping in public spaces, the city’s police chief hopes the council will consider two critical contributing factors – mental health and substance abuse issues – when making its decision.

“While it’s not a crime to be homeless, the police are the first ones to get called whenever there’s an issue,” Police Chief Alex Chavira said. “The last few years, we’ve received a lot of calls for behavior issues. They range from urinating in public to screaming at patrons, theft, damage to property, aggravated battery and even felonies.”

Local discussion about housing people without shelter has been surfacing in recent weeks in the wake of U.S. Supreme Court action that now allows cities to establish an ordinance to ban sleeping and camping in public spaces.

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 28, in the case City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, overturned a lower court’s ruling that had prohibited cities from enforcing public camping ordinances, which had been deemed cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Now, municipalities can create and enforce these ordinances, even if local shelters cannot accommodate their homeless populations.

Chavira said the Sterling Police Department has dealt with an unprecedented number of calls related to homeless individuals in the community in the past few years. He said that although arresting people will not solve some of the root causes of the problem, establishing a city ordinance could provide a tool that police can use when situations escalate.

“The only time our officers arrest anybody that’s homeless is when they commit a crime,” Chavira said.

He said that most of the time, officers are trying to facilitate a connection between the person who’s homeless and Lutheran Social Services of Illinois; Public Action to Deliver Shelter, commonly known as PADS; or another group.

Where can they go?

One place people seeking shelter can go is to the Twin Cities PADS Homeless Shelter in Sterling. In an interview with Shaw Local, shelter director Myles Newberry said the community is starting to see the bigger problem.

“We are dealing with a segment of the homeless population that have mental health and substance abuse issues, and our little shelter is not equipped to handle that,” Newberry said. “It’s been a growing problem that has really come to a head in the last year or so. For those people who don’t want to get help, what are we supposed to do?”

Newberry said he regularly receives calls from state hospitals looking to release their mental health ward patients to the shelter.

“I actually had one hospital that drove a guy up here, dropped him on my doorstep and left,” Newberry said. “The hospital never called us, and we knew little about him. After about 24 hours, he left in the middle of the night. I had to call the sheriff and let him know this guy was out wandering the community.”

The shelter depends on four paid employees and a mix of volunteers, none of whom are equipped to deal with mental health and substance abuse issues.

“I don’t have a [certified nursing assistant] or even a social worker who’s had training in mental health because we can’t afford it,” Newberry said. “It’s everything we can do just to keep our doors open and provide supervision.”

The shelter depends on grants, private donations and fundraising to stay open. Newberry said despite losing 75% of his volunteer base after the COVID-19 pandemic, his small but dedicated crew does its best, even adding a client advocate last year who works with the residents to establish a plan for getting back on their feet.

“It’s not a perfect thing, but over the years we’ve tried to find better ways,” Newberry said. “It’s a slow process, but one we pour our hearts into.”

Newberry said that over the past year, the number of individuals the shelter helps annually has doubled from 45 to 90 people. The shelter can hold up to 32 residents, although Newberry said the house gets “cozy” at about 25 people.

Although the shelter is open seven days a week year round, it is only open from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m., at which point the residents must fend for themselves. Newberry said he would like to extend the hours but needs more staff.

“I’d probably have to double my budget,” Newberry said. “In a perfect world, I’d like to have another client advocate and three more staff members. The problem is there’s a small segment of our population that would sit in here all day and do nothing.”

Dixon’s homeless shelter, which is not affiliated with Sterling’s shelter, deals with that issue by only guaranteeing housing for a limited time and requiring that residents move toward independence.

The PADS Homeless Shelter in Dixon is open year round, every day, all day, and requires a background check and drug testing to stay. Those who refuse or who have extensive criminal backgrounds, including crimes of a violent or sexual nature, are not allowed.

“That has limited our census a bit because there are some who don’t want to give up their addictions to come in,” shelter board vice president Joanna Kibble said. “We also don’t want to expose the children here to people with violent crimes.”

Dixon’s shelter serves individuals in Lee, Ogle and Whiteside counties and is funded through donations from United Way and the community. It has five managers, all volunteers, who oversee two buildings: one dedicated to women and children and the other to men. Together, these shelters can house up to 32 people.

Once accepted, individuals are guaranteed 90 days of shelter while working toward gaining employment, their own housing, and additional support through local organizations such as the Tri-County Opportunities Council and Lutheran Social Services.

“We take every case as it comes,” Kibble said. “If you’ve done everything we’ve asked of you and you’re really trying, we’ll extend that time period.”

The shelter currently houses 15 people: seven men, three women and five children. However, it already has reached maximum capacity on several occasions this year.

“In those instances, we try to connect them with other shelters or housing specialists through Sinnissippi,” Kibble said. “We’ve even bought some of them a bus ticket to family who were willing to take them in.”

Kibble said they are trying to raise $7,645 to convert one of the rooms at the facility into a warming/cooling center that anyone can use, regardless of their background, during extreme heat and cold temperatures. That space would have access to food, its own bathroom and would be locked off from the rest of the facility.

“We wanted a place to make sure people are warm throughout the night,” Kibble said. “During the day, they can warm up in places like the library or the police department.”

Shelters and warming centers are a good place to start, but homelessness is a multifaceted and complicated issue. The best place to start might be the simplest.

“Come volunteer – even if it’s just for an hour or two,” Newberry said. “You’d be surprised what you learn about some of these people, and we could use the help.”

Chavira said although his department does what it can, some people do not want a helping hand.

“The problem is you can’t force them to take the help,” Chavira said. “Believe it or not, if you’ve talked to any of them, many will tell you they don’t mind sleeping and sitting out here all day and doing nothing. It’s a problem.”