It started with human feces on doorsteps but over time things grew dangerous in Gregory Gould’s Midtown Atlanta neighborhood — homeless encampments sprung up in his building’s stairwells, Gould was assaulted and threatened while picking up trash. He feared for his wife.
Worse yet, local authorities appeared to do little, if anything, to enforce the laws already on the books to protect Gould and his neighbors. “I would like to be safe in my own neighborhood,” he told Georgia lawmakers at a March 26 Senate committee public hearing.
Thankfully, help is now just a signature away. By approving House Bill 295, which has been passed by the Legislature, Gov. Brian Kemp can give Georgians like Gould a way to hold city leaders accountable when they allow homelessness to grow unchecked and harm neighborhoods.
Bill targets nonenforcement of laws
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
In recent years, homelessness policy in some of Georgia’s largest cities has drifted toward selective enforcement. Laws governing public space — bans on illegal camping, restrictions on loitering, and rules intended to keep sidewalks and commercial areas functional — are often ignored.
Unfortunately, the burden has too often fallen on those living and working nearby. In Gould’s building, he said residents now spend upward of $100,000 a year cleaning their property, he testified.
HB 295, sponsored by Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, is built on a straightforward premise that when government fails to carry out its basic responsibilities, citizens should not be left to absorb the consequences.
Government is supposed to work for everyone, not just according to the preferences of those in charge. The legislation would allow property owners to file claims when their property values decline or when they incur reasonable mitigation costs because of a local government’s failure to enforce laws addressing illegal camping, panhandling, loitering, drug activity and public intoxication.
HB 295 does not attempt to solve homelessness directly. Instead, it allows property owners to seek compensation when local governments adopt a policy, pattern or practice of nonenforcement that leads to declining property values or forces owners to incur mitigation costs.
Government should enforce public safety laws
Critics argue that measures like this “criminalize homelessness” and point to the cost of incarceration versus housing, but that is a bait-and-switch tactic. HB 295 creates no new criminal penalties and mandates no arrests.
It is simply a mechanism that gives residents recourse when their local elected officials refuse to enforce the law. Cities remain free to pursue housing, services and outreach. Nobody is trying to stop what works. This bill is about something different: empowering residents and business owners to hold their local government accountable when it has the laws and the resources but fails to act.
We know this approach works because it has been tried elsewhere.
Arizona voters — Republican and Democrat alike — approved a similar measure after years of deteriorating conditions in “the Zone” in Phoenix, where encampments kept growing even as public spending climbed.
By forcing local governments to treat existing laws as obligations rather than suggestions, the reform changed the incentive structure. In response, cities increased enforcement, encampments were cleared and public spaces were restored — not because homelessness was solved, but because government finally did its job.
The logic is simple: Laws that exist should be enforced. Allowing unsafe encampments to persist without sanitation, treatment or services is not compassion — it is neglect. Leaving residents to absorb rising crime, health hazards and declining property values without the backing of the law is a failure of governance, one that ends up making everything worse.
HB 295 is not a criminalization bill. It requires government to do what it already claims to do: Enforce the law equally. Gov. Kemp should sign it and make clear that in Georgia, laws are not optional.
Victor Riches is the president and CEO of the Goldwater Institute, an organization that advocates for freedom and individual rights.
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