OPINION: Saratoga Springs' camping ban targets people, not problems

Predictably, the Saratoga Springs' camping ban has proven to be less about maintaining access to the city's public spaces for the disabled or to connect the unhoused with services and more to do with rousting folks city leaders don't want around. Advocates for 15 Capital Region social justice and religious organizations, addressing a City Council meeting last month, said the ban against sitting or lying on public property is simply being used to harass unhoused citizens. The Times Union's Wendy Liberatore reported advocates took turns reading from a letter, which said the ordinance "is repeatedly used to target disabled unhoused people or previously unhoused people, while not being applied to tourists and more affluent-appearing residents for the same behavior." After the ban was passed, and then again after a storyteller argued his First Amendment speech rights were being violated when he was cited under the then-new ordinance, we noted the potential for selective enforcement. Ms. Liberatore reported that Commissioner of Public Safety Tim Coll, who proposed the ordinance, said at the council meeting, it is "inhumane to allow people to live and camp on the streets." He followed up in an email to the Times Union that bringing the homeless into the city's courts will "connect individuals experiencing homelessness with the services and support they need." Yet, advocates, including the Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church, Saratoga Black Lives Matter, Saratoga Immigration Coalition and the National Union of the Homeless, said most of the unhoused already are connected to services. Their letter stated, "Despite the city's claims that this ordinance will motivate people to engage in housing services, court observers have noted most cases are dropped because those ticketed are already engaged in services." The camping ban, passed in a 3-2 vote last July, tickets those who sit or lie on city property like benches, sidewalks, parking lots, garages and gazebos, or in doorways adjacent to city property or those who place camping material on city property. Violators are fined $100. Subsequent offenses could result in a fine of up to $250. If the unhoused in Saratoga Springs are mostly an identifiable group of people and if advocates' claims are true that cases are being dropped, we again raise the question: What's the point? Advocates, in their letter, urged the city to consider other ways to help the unhoused like "...meaningfully addressing the housing crisis through a commitment to a year-round, low-barrier shelter, and improved safeguards for tenants." We say again: nobody wants homeless encampments in public spaces. But, as the advocates show, there are better ways to help people than criminalizing the act of sitting in public. This ban should be repealed - before tourists arrive for summer. Otherwise, it will clearly continue to be an attempt to hide an issue rather than address it.

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This story was originally published April 16, 2026 at 1:30 AM.