By a 34-16 vote, a Jarret Coleman sponsored bill taking aim at unauthorized homeless encampments passed the state senate on June 25. The Lehigh Valley's other two state senators, Lisa Boscola and Nick Miller, also voted for this measure. The bill now advances to the state house.
I have a cousin who lives in LA. When he left the Lehigh Valley, he was a Democrat. Now he's a conservative Republican. One of the things that has really bothered him is the number of homeless encampments on city sidewalks. Things there have become so bad that Governor Gavin Newsom is urging and even threatening cities and counties to ban these tent cities. And in his NYC Mayoral campaign, former Governor Andrew Cuomo pledged to get homeless people out of subways.
The prime sponsor of this bill, Senator Joe Picozzi, framed the issue as one of "public safety, health and welfare for neighborhoods." He observed that these encampments bring " trash accumulation, drug paraphernalia, crime, risks from open flames, and blighted conditions."
Under the bill, an "unauthorized encampment" is an "encampment on public or private property, without the property owner's express consent or authorization, where an ndication of nuisance exists."
It imposes a duty on property owners, including municipalities, to "prevent, mitigate and abate any condition of nuisance on the property." It also creates a private cause of action in "interested persons" (any owner located within 1600' of the tent city) to sue for injunctive relief, including "reasonable expenses."
4 comments:
This law is already confusing me. So take the encampment in Bethlehem by the rail tracks, does this mean that Norfolk Southern has a legal responsibility to enforce the law for public safety to remove them, or face a potential injunction from a business nearby? Who is then legally responsible for the “crime” and cleanup cost, the homeless folks with no money? The law might be some legal mechanism that could be beneficial but it already seems that it might lead to odd legal consequences where one company is sued by a business owner for not forcing someone off their property soon enough? This feels like it doesn’t do anything because you’ll just further be shuffling homeless folks from one property to the next creating legal issues between various businesses and parties. Maybe I’m interpreting what Bernie wrote incorrectly but this feels like a fluff piece of legislation that doesn’t do much of anything but be a grand stand so Nick Lisa and others can act like they’ve done something in Hairrsburg when we don’t get a budget passed!
“Amazingly, this legislation is opposed by the Pa. Municipal League”
Yea, really shocking. An organization that represents third class cities run by democrats (like Harrisburg, Erie, Allentown and Bethlehem) taking a position against actually solving a problem.
What do you think the purpose of the League really is? Newsflash: it’s to give political cover to the idiotic policies of democrat politicians. And guess what? It’s likely funded by our tax dollars. So it’s just another democrat propaganda machine.
When will you learn (or finally admit) that democrat politicians and those who support them are not interested in solving problems, just holding on to their political power?
Democrats are not serious people.
Your cousin figured it out. There is still hope for you Bernie :)
Bohare to 1:37, in Bethlehem’s encampment, I doubt anyone could be considered an interested party bc it is pretty isolated from residences or businesses. You are being purposely confused
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