voted to amend <\/a>the city\u2019s existing policy against camping in urban areas, allowing the Juneau Police Department to evict people sleeping on private property in a narrowly defined area of downtown. The ordinance, set to take effect April 15, is enforceable between midnight and 7 a.m. in a long, narrow stretch downtown below Fourth Street extending the entirety of South Franklin Street.<\/p>\nThursday afternoon, Deputy City Manager Mila Cosgrove said she had received confirmation that the avalanche danger has passed and the campground will open on schedule.<\/p>\n
The campground, located 1.5 miles from downtown on the east side of Thane Road, is a primitive style campground with trash service and restrooms; there is no electricity and campers must supply their own water. Campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis and the campground allows tent camping only; RVs are not permitted.<\/p>\n
Thane campground does charge a fee of $5 a night, $25 a week or $100 a month. It also charges a $50 deposit, which Cosgrove said would be waived.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working on options for folks who truly can\u2019t afford fees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Cosgrove said that if campers have complied with the rules and cleaned up their campsites, they get a partial refund when they leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone doesn\u2019t have a way to pay, of course we want them to have some place to be,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to disadvantage anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cosgrove stressed that the Thane campground is being considered as one option for homeless people being displaced by the camping ordinance, but that is not their only option.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do charge a fee, but we are looking at options to offset that fee,\u201d she said. \u201cThe details have not been ironed out yet, but we will not turn people away for lack of funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Cosgrove was unable to provide a timeline for when the city would have those options in place, saying only that it was being actively worked on.<\/p>\n
Both Cosgrove and Juneau Police Department Lt. David Campbell stressed that the city has been actively working on outreach and trying to connect people with services, since the ordinance was passed in mid-February.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been preparing for April 15, we have been contacting people and giving them warnings,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cWe have had four separate outreach operations prior to the ordinance going into effect \u2026 with downtown officers and service providers, contacting people to try to get them into services.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no specific plan to make any kind of sweep of downtown streets come Saturday, Campbell said, adding that officers assigned to the downtown core will conduct their regular patrols and if they discover a violation of the camping ordinance, they can issue a citation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will treat this like any other violation \u2014 it\u2019s an infraction,\u201d he said. \u201cIf a person refuses to leave, they will be cited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell acknowledged the possibility that homeless people camping in doorways will just choose to be scofflaws and rack up multiple citations, saying, \u201cWe\u2019ll have to see how the rollout goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
March aims to bring awareness to sexual assault, vulnerability of homeless<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
In conjunction with the enforcement of the camping ordinance, AWARE and the Glory Hole have organized a \u201cTake Back the Night\u201d march Saturday night to bring awareness to sexual assault, particularly against those who are homeless.<\/p>\n
The date was picked specifically to mark the start of the camping ordinance, said AWARE (Aiding Women in Abuse and Rape Emergencies) deputy director Mandy Cole.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were motivated by the homeless women who testified at the Assembly hearings on the camping ordinance,\u201d Cole said. \u201cThe women were talking about their safety and their fears. \u2026 They are feeling like they are being pushed out from a place they felt was more safe than other places in the city. From our privileged, housed positions we don\u2019t understand how it can be more safe to sleep in a doorway, but that is their reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The march will start at 8:30 p.m. at the courthouse plaza and will end up at the Glory Hole (Juneau\u2019s homeless shelter and soup kitchen downtown on South Franklin Street) with a candlelight vigil. Participants are also being asked to bring sleeping bags, tents, tarps, wool socks, camping pads, wool hats \u2014 anything you\u2019d need to live outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to invite everyone to come,\u201d Cole said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be an honest look at things that are hard to deal with, standing in solidarity and support with people who are on the street. It\u2019s about shining a light on something that thrives on being secret or not talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
Contact reporter Liz Kellar at 523-2246 or liz.kellar@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s official: The Thane campground will open on Saturday \u2014 and the City and Borough of Juneau\u2019s camping ordinance will go into effect at midnight that night. In February, the Assembly voted to amend the city\u2019s existing policy against camping in urban areas, allowing the Juneau Police Department to evict people sleeping on private property […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":8576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-8575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8575"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}