MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A bill that would criminalize local municipalities and law enforcement agencies from transporting to other Alabama cities people experiencing homelessness was carried over in committee last week at the request of its sponsor.
“The intention of this bill was to address a situation in which we have bad actors,” Rep. Craig Lipscomb, R-Gadsden, said Wednesday in the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.
He plans to bring the bill back before the committee.
“Predominantly, it’s our neighbors to the east and west of this state who are taking their homeless population and dumping them in our municipal districts for the sake of just decreasing their personnel burdens.”
Instances of homeless people being transported to Alabama cities have been alleged, most recently by Mobile officials who claimed homeless were being brought in from the city of Biloxi, Mississippi against their will. Biloxi Mayor Andrew Gilich had denied the allegation, but admitted that some homeless Mississippians had been transported to Mobile.
Lipscomb asked that a vote be delayed, noting that there were issues he still wanted to address. In its current form, it would criminalize law enforcement from transporting homeless Alabamians to different municipalities, even if the receiving municipality had agreed to such, something Lipscomb said he wanted to avoid.
Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, the chair of the committee and former Birmingham police officer, thanked Lipscomb for sponsoring the bill, and said that the mass transportation of homeless Alabamians was indeed a “major issue.”
“Right before I retired, this was a major issue in Birmingham,” Treadaway said. “It seems like multiple cities, and I believe the county just south of Birmingham, was a violator of this; not mentioning names.”
Other committee members cautioned Lipscomb that in the bill’s current form, many of their own communities would be in violation of the proposal were it to become law.
“I understand what you’re trying to do, but as I’ve shared with you, we have zero services for the homeless, so frequently, law enforcement gives rides to the Salvation Army or somewhere,” said Rep. Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg.
“So I really want to be careful that we don’t tie the hands of law enforcement when they’re just trying to help somebody out (by) giving them a ride somewhere.”
Rep. Jennifer Fidler, R-Silverhill, said that her community also lacked sufficient resources for the homeless, and that the bill could pose a problem if left unaltered.
“In Baldwin County, we do not have a homeless shelter, so we do take our homeless to Mobile’s (shelter) because it’s a regional center for the homeless,” Fidler said.
Others, like Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, instead suggested the bill was trying to solve an issue that could be better addressed through other means.
“I see what you’re saying, but it troubles me that we don’t have shelters,” Jackson said. “What’s really troubling is that we have homeless in the first place in this nation that we always brag about (being) the richest nation on the planet, and we can’t take care of the poor.”
The bill was ultimately voted to be carried over, and will return to the committee at the discretion of its chair. Lipscomb later told Alabama Daily News that he still intends on seeing the bill through this year, only after being “adjusted and tweaked to suit all the needs of all interested parties.”
“I’ve been hearing from numerous municipalities that they were having issues with not necessarily adjacent counties, but adjacent states, bringing their homeless population into ours and dropping them basically on their doorstep,” he told ADN.
“The original concept of the bill was to prevent that from occurring. I think it’s an issue in many places, especially those that are near the state lines.”
Alabama Daily News’ Stuart Dyos contributed to this report.