FEB 20, 2025 | NEWS | By Margaret Freeman and Maya Rosen
Nicholas Picciano, who is currently experiencing homelessness on the streets of Colorado Springs, is concerned that the expansion of a city ordinance that went into effect on Feb. 8 will prohibit him from sitting or lying down in even more places in the city.
The city has made it “illegal to be homeless,” Picciano said. “We’re not human beings.”
Seven members of the Colorado Springs City Council voted to extend the boundaries of a sit-lie ordinance that currently applies to Old Colorado City and the downtown area on Jan. 28. Now marking the third time in about the past decade that the city council has expanded its ordinance, the new no-sit-or-lie rules have grown and now span from the east side of S. Nevada Avenue to S. Wahsatch Avenue.
Those who voted in favor were Randy Helms, Lynette Crow-Iverson, Dave Donelson, Michelle Talarico, Mike O’Malley, David Leinweber and Brian Risley. The two votes opposed were Yolanda Avila and Nancy Henjum.
After the vote, Mayor Yemi Mobolade signed the ordinance into effect.
Some officials and people like Picciano worry that city council is taking the wrong approach to addressing homelessness. Supporters believe that it is simply a step towards a larger solution.
The ordinance states that it is illegal for people to “sit, kneel, recline or lie down” in any public right-of-way area between 7 a.m and 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The ordinance applies explicitly to business districts in the city.
Before issuing tickets, police will give warnings to people experiencing homelessness who are sitting or lying in public areas. After a warning, police can issue a fine up to $500 for the first offense. The second violation can result in another $500 fine or up to 90 days in jail.
City Council first implemented a sit-lie ordinance in 2016, applying only to the Old Colorado City commercial district. In 2022, City Council expanded it to include Downtown Colorado Springs, the area directly south of the Colorado College campus, and extending down to Cheyenne Road on the west side of Nevada Ave.
Data from the Colorado Springs Police Department shows that police have issued 130 citations to people experiencing homelessness under the sit-lie ordinance from 2022 to 2024.
Shannon Snuggs, a commander in the police department, presented the call types the police department has received in the current and expanded area for the ordinance to City Council during their meeting on Dec. 9, 2024. According to Snuggs, the calls for camping and trespassing apply most to homelessness.
Between January 2022 and September 2024, police in the area where the ordinance was in place received 170 calls for camping and 105 for trespassing. In the newly expanded area, 29 calls have been made about camping and 51 about trespassing.
Snuggs said the ordinance is a way to create “additional contacts” with people experiencing homelessness, with warnings issued before a ticket.
“The warning moves them along,” Snuggs said.
According to Avila, one of the two ‘no’ votes on the city council, many of the people experiencing homelessness ticketed for sitting in public places receive warrants for failing to appear in court for unpaid tickets. “It’s a revolving door,” Avila said.
Henjum, who also voted ‘no,’ said she understands how the ordinance can help local business owners but believes for people experiencing homelessness, it is “essentially criminalizing their behavior for sitting.”
Henjum disagreed with the ordinance as a way to push for better resources for people experiencing homelessness and to highlight flaws in how the city is addressing the issue.
“If they were sitting on the little bench outside of a place and they weren’t homeless, they wouldn’t be ticketed,” she said.
Both council members agreed the ordinance is just one tool in addressing the issue but said efforts to improve mental health support would go further in helping people experiencing homelessness.
“It is extremely easy to make our unhoused a scapegoat,” Avila said. “It criminalizes homelessness.”
The city council’s ruling has started unrest in the Colorado College community. Student activist Dana Trummert ‘27, a member of CC’s Allies for Unhoused Youth and Colorado Springs Mutual Aid, is blown away by the ordinance.
“It’s one of the more dystopian pieces of legislation,” she said, “Do you guys think if we don’t let people sit on the ground homelessness is going to go away?”
Colorado College student activist EmRhys Jenkins ‘27 founded Allies of Unhoused Youth at Colorado College after experiencing homelessness prior to his years at CC. He argues that excessive policing, with ordinances like Sit-Lie, often does more harm than good.
“That messaging, generally of ‘pushing people towards resources,’ also really affects public understanding of what’s happening with homelessness,” Jenkins said. “It’s a lot easier to dehumanize when your given this out of ‘well, if they wanted help they could have it.’”
Michelle Talarico, the council member for District 3, which encompasses much of downtown, where the new expansion is located, voted yes on the ordinance.
“It gives them an opportunity to engage and try and get those folks the services that they need,” Talarico said, referring to police interactions with people experiencing homelessness.
Despite voting for the expansion, Talarico said the ordinance is only one piece of a solution, and that more work is needed to improve other resources for the community.
“I want some concrete steps to open more shelters, to open more mental health services,” she said. “This is gonna take a community wide approach.”
Talarico also said that this ordinance is doing some good.
“It helps business owners,” she said. “People sitting and lying in front of their stores… prohibits some, not all, customers from entering.”
Jessie Kimber, director of economic development for Colorado Springs, said the ordinance expansion can help promote “public safety” and “economic vitality.”
A manager of a restaurant that relies on foot traffic in the area where the ordinance has most recently been expanded, who did not want to be named, said they have struggled with unhoused people in the past.
“There’s been instances where they’re fighting outside in the parking lot,” the manager said. “It can affect how people see this area.”
The store manager also said the business has struggled with drug use in their bathroom, making it unusable for patrons.
“It kind of sucks for them,” the manager said, “but from the perspective of the business owners, we want to prioritize the safety of our guests.”
Back on S. Nevada, Picciano was recently smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk. A guitar case rested on the handlebars of his bike. His small dog was nearby.
He knows what the city council has done, and he knows he will have to find a way to respond in his own life.
“You better keep walking,” Picciano said. “That’s what the rule is. You can’t sleep.”
About others like him experiencing homelessness, he said: “They get kicked out by the police. Where are we supposed to go, the sewer hole?”