Brockton City Council overrides mayor's veto to pass ban on public camping, loitering

The Brockton City Council overrode a veto by the mayor, allowing the city to enact a ban on camping in public.

Monday's decisive 8-3 vote on the new rule comes after months of heated debate over how to address homeless encampments and drug use in the city.

In November, Mayor Robert Sullivan vetoed the ordinance after the city council passed it 7-4. He said the restrictions would "criminalize homelessness," and asked the council to amend the ordinance to remove the $200 fine for ban violations.

On Monday, one additional councilor, Maria Tavares, joined those in favor of the measure, allowing the body to override the veto.

The council read an amendment filed late Monday that would eliminate the fine, however. It was referred to a committee for debate and could be up for a future vote.

The council also overrode the mayor's veto on a loitering ordinance 10-1.

"We decide tonight whether our city demands a decent, safe, and sanitary environment for our residents," Councilor Jeffrey Thompson said at Monday's meeting, addressing his fellow councilors. "Or do we fold, and turn over our public spaces, to a small group of people who have no care or concern for our city?"

Thompson, who was elected council president Monday, spoke in favor of overriding the mayor's veto before the vote. He also presented a slideshow of photos and video of people who appeared to live on city streets. Some of the visuals included images of needles littering the ground.

Councilor Jean Bradley Derenoncourt told those in attendance that "being homeless is not a crime." He chided his colleagues for wanting to punish people living on the streets.

"As we speak, it is so cold out there. I don't think anybody would be willing to stay on the street in this weather. ... These people need help, not punishment," he said. "You don't kick someone in their teeth when they are already down."

Derenoncourt voted against overriding the veto, alongside councilors Susan Nicastro and Winthrop Farwell Jr.

Farwell said it was "nuts" to impose a $200 fine on people who have nothing.

"I just don't think this ordinance is going to be the panacea people think it's going to be," he said.

Farwell noted several existing laws already restrict littering, open and gross lewdness, disorderly conduct, use of drugs and trespassing.

"If all of those have not solved the problem, all of those laws that have been available to our police department, then I find it incredible that this ordinance will solve the problem," he said.

The mayor did not immediately return a request for comment.