WILMINGTON — Language to strengthen the City of Southport’s regulations against overnight stays on city property will be brought before the board of aldermen on Thursday.
READ MORE: Southport reports rise in complaints due to 5-person homeless population
Over the last few weeks, city officials have been hinting at potential changes to the city’s ordinances to curtail complaints over the city’s homeless population. Police say there are currently five to seven people staying on the streets of the small city.
However, there could be many others who are unseen, living in cars or otherwise without stable housing. According to a recent buildout analysis of the town, Southport may have a hard time creating housing for them.
The amendments, put together by city staff along with police chief Todd Coring and Maj. Tony Burke, clarify actions that constitute overnight camping, which the ordinance already prohibits.
According to the proposed change, the definition includes:
- Sleeping
- Making preparations to sleep (including lying down or the laying down of bedding for the purpose of sleeping), and/or storing personal belongings
- The placement of tents, huts, tarps
- Parking of a motor vehicle, motor home, or trailer, or mooring a vessel or another type of structure for living accommodation purposes
As the proposed language names camping on its property a public nuisance, the city reserves the right to remove any shelter, bedding or personal belongings.
The ban would apply to all city-owned property — streets, sidewalks, alleys, improved or unimproved land, and parks — along with the boardwalk sections of the Southport Riverwalk. All of the city’s parks have also been added to the ordinance, with unified hours of 6 a.m. to dusk; only Caviness Park, Franklin Square Park, Keziah Park and Lowe Park are named now.
Violations would subject the offender to a $25 civil penalty, with each additional day or continued violation incurring another $25 fine.
A similar ordinance was passed by the New Hanover County Commissioners earlier this year. In July, Port City Daily reported the measure was causing an increase in private property trespassing calls to the Wilmington Police Department and making it harder for nonprofits to find vulnerable clients as they were often pushed into wooded areas.
The Southport Board of Aldermen did not discuss the amendment’s implications on the homeless community at the agenda review meeting on Friday.
City manager Bonnie Therrien explained to Port City Daily the proposal was put together after the city and the Southport Police Department started receiving an influx of complaints over homeless individuals in recent months. She said she had two or three complaints the last few months; earlier this month Maj. Burke said he also was not sure how many complaints the department has received, but noted only one or two incidents resulted in arrest.
Therrien also cited complaints at the aldermen’s Aug. 10 meeting as impetus for the suggested ordinance change.
Four women spoke out at the August meeting, including resident Kathy Cabral, who claimed people were sleeping and defecating in the parks and behind public buildings.
“These people are not local workers who pay taxes and cannot afford to live here — they are vagrants,” Cabral said during the August meeting. She later added homeless individuals were a “threat to the public safety and our public servants do not need to befriend, feed or shelter them.”
The resident advocated for strengthened ordinances and enforcement so unsheltered people could be moved to facilities suitable for their needs. Though, Cabral said, Southport does not need to create a homeless shelter.
A few members of the group reported seeing a lady, assumed to be homeless, yelling profanities at passersby. They also reported seeing people bathe in the water fountains, defecate or urinate in the street or change clothes in full view of pedestrians.
“[Visitors] should be able to walk down to Fishy Fishy [Cafe] or walk down to American Fish Company and not watch people parked in a white van that reeks of urine, that has chairs and camping equipment, dancing in the streets and mocking people that go by,” resident Kim Cobb said during the August meeting.
Cobb asked the aldermen not to view her as uncaring, as she was a kindergarten teacher who had seen “the good, the bad, and the ugly and always tried to help.” She advocated for a homeless shelter and community watch program.
The aldermen also arranged a homelessness forum on August 31, where the mood was less condemnatory. While many speakers said they hoped the town would address the homeless population, all speakers were proponents of a more sensitive approach.
“My thinking is that bad things happen to good people,” resident Joanne Mayor said through tears during the forum.
She suggested the city allow those in need to bathe in the fire department’s showers. The resident also put together care kits for law enforcement to pass out to homeless individuals.
“If someone can get clean and refreshed, they just might be able to approach someone and say, ‘Can I work for you today?’” Mayor said.
Another Southport resident, Sue Marsh, addressed the remarks of others head-on, calling out the Aug. 10 speakers who suggested they “round them up and arrest them, get rid of them.”
“I don’t know any of these speakers but I would guess many of them are Christians, maybe even active in their churches,” Marsh said. “I would say to them, ‘Ask yourself: What would Jesus do?’”
Local pastor Ronald Thompson said if the city can build bathrooms for visitors, it should be able to help those in need find shelter. He also spoke of inviting homeless people into his services.
“Sometimes that has made me feel ashamed because they praise harder than I do,” Thompson said.
Among the forum’s speakers was Sally Learned, executive director of the nonprofit Brunswick Partnership for Housing. Learned gave a presentation to the aldermen at the Aug. 4 agenda review where she stated the major contributor to homelessness was a lack of affordable housing. She echoed those statements during her comments at the forum, also pointing out the problem has affected many seniors, who make up the majority age demographic in Southport.
Casey Poplaski at Brunswick Senior Resources elaborated on that aspect.
“We come to work in the morning and there are seniors that have lost their homes and they’re sleeping in our parking lots in their cars,” Poplaski said during the forum. “Well, that’s a safe place to be.”
Ultimately, Learned pointed out, the issue comes down to housing stock.
“Largely it’s an economic issue of supply and demand; there is not enough affordable housing anywhere in the nation for the numbers of people needing it,” Learned said.
Stock problems
On Sept. 8, the Southport aldermen were given a glimpse into what options they have to boost the city’s housing stock. Wes Macleod, on behalf of the Cape Fear Council of Governments, presented the board with a buildout analysis showing the maximum potential residential units that could be created in Southport’s corporate limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction.
According to the study’s growth projections, Southport is expected to gain 2,000 residents by 2040, which equates to 800 needed housing units. Only 3% of developed land is multi-family residential, with little room in the corporate limits for sizable projects.
Most of the undeveloped land resides in Southport’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, which is a zone of influence where the city has say over planning design but does not provide city services.
Aldermen John Allen reminded the board and public that much of the undeveloped land — around 2,200 acres — could not be built on due to wetland and other environmental obstructions. He also noted there was not a high likelihood that much of the ETJ would be annexed into city limits in the future, though Macleod noted the residents would still frequent Southport.
Tallying up maximum units under the city’s current land code, Macleod and team estimate the city can house an additional 11,304 people on top of its current population of 4,226.
However, with three zoning modifications, that figure could double.
The group also ran the numbers using several potential zoning modifications. Southport has over 200 acres zoned light industrial; if that acreage was rezoned, it could accommodate 659 units. The team factored in the allowance of mixed-use developments or single-family homes in the highway commercial and heavy industrial districts, making room for an additional 314 units.
Macleod also calculated how many units could be added if the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation aimed at promoting middle, affordable, or workforce housing. However, this tends to be built at higher densities than allowed in many of Southport’s and other smaller municipalities’ residential districts.
Considering four units per 10,000 square feet in the R-10 zoning, and four units per 20,000 square feet in the R-20, the city would be able to build out 5,885 units on available acreage.
Under these three variables, Southport’s estimated capacity would increase by 22,605 people, bringing its total population to 26,831. Macleod pointed out there is no time horizon on the estimates, just a measure of what’s possible in the future.
As for the possibility of state-mandated higher density allowances, several bills in the General Assembly this year gained bipartisan support for the idea; Southport publicly spoke against a few of them.
In April, the board discussed a handful of bills, most of which would have taken away some municipal power in the planning process to promote affordable housing. None passed, but Southport leaders labeled the slate a wake-up call.
“If we — and we, collectively, all of the municipalities — don’t do something for workforce housing then we’re going to get forced to do something for the workforce housing,” Alderman Richard Alt said at the Sept. 8 agenda review. “It may not be what will actually fit into our town.”
Several others noted their support for affordable housing, but pointed out there wasn’t much room for it in city limits, and the land that is available comes at a high cost. Macleod concurred and stated it would be hard for developers to put forth a project in Southport without incentives.
“I dare anyone to force affordable housing — there is no affordable housing or workforce housing in the city, in the corporate limits,” Mayor Joseph Hatem said. “It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just the way the market’s been driven, unfortunately.”
While the analysis was not submitted to guide the town’s capital plans, Macleod said it is a tool to track growth in the city.
As for the camping amendments, the board will discuss the item at their regular meeting on Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. in the Southport Community Center.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com
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