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Polk County Attorney says Des Moines camping bans are counterproductive and 'criminalizing poverty'

Kimberly Graham speaks at a podium as part of a forum for county attorney candidates held at Drake University on May 24, 2022.
Grant Gerlock
/
Iowa Public Radio
Kimberly Graham spoke at a forum for county attorney candidates held at Drake University on May 24, 2022.

It's still unknown when enforcement of the camping bans in Des Moines will begin. One critic of the two ordinances that target unhoused people is Polk County Attorney Kimberly Graham. The role of the Polk County attorney is to prosecute state crimes, so Graham is not responsible for the court proceedings related to the city ordinances. That responsibility resides with the city attorney.

Graham spoke with IPR's Meghan McKinney on Morning Edition Tuesday about camping ordinances in Des Moines. Here's their conversation.

McKinney: You spoke at one city council meeting before these camping bans were passed, you also urged city council not to pass them. Why?

Graham: First of all, I want to say that I very much appreciate the mayor and city council's work to help folks that are houseless, that do not have homes. This particular ordinance, however, I believe is counterproductive. I believe that it's going to create more obstacles for people to obtain housing. And of course, what can happen is the more that someone acquires a criminal record of any kind, the more difficult it can be to obtain housing as well, not to mention the financial burden.

I just don't think that essentially criminalizing poverty is something that we should be doing.
Kimberly Graham, Polk County Attorney

And I absolutely understand the complaints about public urination, public defecation, trespass, harassment, but we have state statutes prohibiting all of those behaviors. But to essentially just criminalize the very circumstance of being homeless is essentially, in my opinion, what is being done here. And I just don't think that essentially criminalizing poverty is something that we should be doing, and it's just not productive.

McKinney: With these new ordinances, your office will not be overseeing the legal prosecutions of them. Why is this an issue that you care about?

I feel I'm responsible for trying to make us as safe as we can, including to make it safe for people that don't have homes.
Kimberly Graham, Polk County Attorney

Graham: I'm the senior law enforcement official in this county, and I'm responsible — or, I feel I'm responsible — for trying to make us as safe as we can, including to make it safe for people that don't have homes. You know, one of the things that I've thought about in regards to this ordinance is, if people know that they're camping out in public, like visible, and they know their tents are going to get taken down and their belongings taken away and stored, and potentially, if they don't want to move, they could be taken to jail. They're probably going to go deeper into the woods, into areas that are more difficult to see, that are less public. And there's already a huge problem with folks who don't have homes being assaulted, being unsafe on the streets. And so now, we've potentially decreased their safety. I believe there absolutely could be an increase in the crimes that we see coming to our office, being reported to our office, for prosecution, because if they're taking down tents and so forth, they could find drug paraphernalia, they could find firearms, they could find whatever. There could be, you know, kind of follow-on effects.

McKinney: The city has said there are two main goals of these ordinances. One is to help people get off the streets, but also to get compliance. A common phrase I hear when I read or talk to people who have overcame severe poverty or maybe a substance use disorder, is 'I couldn't have done that until I was ready to help myself.' What's your response to that in regard to the city's goals?

Graham: I think that that's true. I worked as the attorney and guardian attorney and guardian ad litem for the children of the participants in the Polk County recovery court. I know that's a mouthful, but for five years, I represented abused and neglected kids, and interacted with their parents who were the ones that had the substance use disorders and the mental health challenges, and so that's true. Recovery court participants would say that constantly, 'It wasn't until I was really ready.'

But I think, does that readiness come because you now have a stable place and a safe place to sleep? And you're not exhausted because you're staying up all night because you're trying not to get assaulted? And maybe you're turning to drug use that will help you stay awake all night? And I'm not just making this up, these are things that people who've experienced houselessness have told me that they have done.

Until you have a physically safe place to sleep, and you can get enough sleep, and you can kind of get yourself stable, you're not going to have the bandwidth or capacity to do these sort of higher level things on that Maslow's Hierarchy, like work on your mental health or go to your substance use disorder treatment, and all of that kind of stuff. So, that has to come first.

Meghan McKinney is IPR's Morning Edition host. McKinney has worked for IPR since late May 2024.