Thank you for contacting the City of Alpharetta. Your service request ID is #14489.

Thanks for reporting!!!

The issue of homelessness is one with which more and more communities are struggling, and the City’s ability to impact it is significantly limited by legal standing and available resources.

While laws prohibiting “vagrancy” were once common, for many years now the courts have consistently overturned such ordinances and have maintained that the act of being homeless cannot be a criminal offense. In one of the most recent cases, federal courts ruled that a Boise, Idaho law banning people from sleeping outdoors on public property was unconstitutional. The court found that when there is no option of sleeping indoors, “the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter.” The ruling is very consistent with others around the country.

The Boise case is of particular note because it applies even if there are homeless shelters but those shelters are at capacity.

While we can prohibit individuals from sleeping in our parks at night because the parks are closed to everyone overnight, the legal precedents significantly restrict our ability to do so in other public areas. Too, while we do have an “urban camping ordinance” that helps us to prevent homeless camps on private properties if a property owner provides written permission to an individual(s) to camp on her/his property or indicates to police that they do not want an individual trespassed from the property the matter becomes much more complicated.

It must also be noted that our ability to charge an individual with public indecency under OCGA § 16-6-8 for urinating in public requires supporting evidence such as eyewitness testimony in a formal complaint to police, video, etc. A statement in the SeeClickFix platform is insufficient. Thus, a complainant would need to file a report with Alpharetta police.

So, what can the City do?

First and foremost, please know that our Police Officers work very hard to be aware of and have contact with homeless individuals living in Alpharetta. Their focus is in two primary areas: identifying and addressing those who may pose a threat to public safety and connecting the rest with essential services.

There are a number of agencies the City works with when we encounter homeless individuals in an effort to connect them with available shelter and essential services. These range from well-known entities like United Way and North Fulton Community Charities to lesser-known organizations like Beat the Streets and StandUp for Kids that provide rapid re-housing, emergency shelter in cases of domestic violence, hotel/motel vouchers, food assistance, and more. Many of these agencies also work heavily in the area of prevention, providing critical services to keep individuals and families in their homes so they do not become homeless.

Stepping out a bit further, Fulton County is the federally charged agency responsible for addressing homelessness. They coordinate a number of federally funded grant programs and the Continuum of Care, which is focused on ending homelessness. The City does engage with the County on these efforts.

This is ridiculous and disgusting. Homelessness is a choice. The city needs to step in and stop this right now. What if this person was sleeping on the front yard of one of our city council persons or even the mayor’s front yard. Would they allow it on their property or in their neighborhood???!!! They would call the police and have them removed in the blink of an eye. Maybe the city should send them to a sanctuary city, unless Alpharetta has become one and the citizens have been left in the dark about it.

The City of Alpharetta has addressed this request. Thank you for reaching out.