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SAN LUIS OBISPO
Homeless parking ordinance costing city
Posted: Jul 11, 2012 5:33 PM by Cameron Polom, KSBY News
Updated: Jul 12, 2012 8:19 AM
Tuesday night's emergency ordinance passed by the city council to begin ticketing people who sleep in their cars, may have some costs your not aware of yet.
The ruling voided a previous injunction that was issued by a superior court judge last week to stop ticketing.
City leaders say the cost of this legal battle could exceed six figures.
Members of the community voiced support for more parking programs like the prado day center at Tuesday nights city council meeting.
"we could create as some other people have brought up camp grounds or accommodations for the poor," said one resident.
But that's more complicated than it sounds.
It's already cost the city over seventy thousand dollars to write in tuesday nights new law. This on the heels of a city already struggling with budget issues.
"I think they'd be very interested in putting these dollars to different uses than defending the city's right to protect the publics health and safety," said Katie Lichtig, City Manager for San Luis Obispo.
Uses like emergency's the county might face, for example a massive wildfire.
"I think its unfortunate that we do see that it probably will cost more than one hundred thousand dollars when all is said and done," said Lichtig.
But according to Dee Torres, Director of the Prado Day Center, just building more parking areas isn't the answer either
"If we start opening up parking lots where people can come and park for free and live permanently i'm not sure if thats really what the community is bargaining for," said Torres. "There's a lot of issues attached to that."
Staffing, public safety and funding are a range of those issues.
"The goal is to help them secure an income and lead them towards or help work with them towards self sufficiency," said Torres.
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