well following hours of public outcry the Summit City Council Tuesday night opted to delay a vote on a controversial new ordinance that would ban camping or sleeping on public property as a way to curb homelessness by allowing local law enforcement to put people in jail the issue sparked intense debate in a marathon meeting that went well after 2 a.m giving council members two more weeks to consider changes to the bill that some residents say still amounts to injustice ted Goldberg has the latest how do we help those in need who want help but also how do we protect our residents our business owners and our visitors leaders in Summit are wrestling with that question and their solution is a controversial new ordinance that would ban sleeping outdoors in public mayor Elizabeth Fagan says it's a necessary step to keep residents safe some of the calls we received include showing pornography to children looking up pornography on library in the library on public computers in plain view of our kids um punching and hitting our first responders what we're talking about is a group of people that are pulling knives on kids that are defecating and urinating on benches that are fighting with police that are harassing residents councilman Jamal Buer says a person experiencing homelessness recently pulled a knife on his 11-year-old daughter leading him to introduce this ordinance there should be arrests made in these kinds of instances i think part of the challenge is conflating that illegal activity with the very condition of homelessness and the biological imperative to sleep as being illegal summit's common council heard public comment about the ordinance last night into early this morning before the 7-hour meeting even began some in the faith community criticized the bill and said it would make Summit bad neighbors those that we love and call neighbor deserve welcome they deserve a place to call home they deserve help and housing not handcuffs jesus says "Care for your neighbor above everything else take care of them treat them as you wish others would treat you."

That's how we need to shape this community as neighbors that concept doesn't appear once doesn't appear twice or three times it appears 36 times in the Hebrew Bible in case we wanted to skip over it once or twice some of the criticism got personal watching you get everyone all worked up because you just love the sound of your own voice is not good for public service in my opinion you are a disgrace councilman Ber I don't know you yet i am embarrassed by and for you while most people who attended opposed the ordinance it also had plenty of supporters who argued that they or their customers don't always feel safe in Summit my staff feel sometimes very unsafe when they leave the salon at the night time especially Thursdays and Fridays because of the situation um some of my clients express concern about coming into the salon when it's dark or when they leaving or when they're entering because they feel unsafe do I have compassion for alcoholics and drug addicts 100% but when do you draw the line when they're just causing problems and they've refused help allowing abuse of our public spaces is neither humane nor compassionate nearly all of Summit's homeless who sought help received help summit's leaders said they would still offer resources as a first response to people experiencing homelessness pointing to the success of the city's homelessness task force they've used community resources to reduce Summit's homeless population from around 40 last summer to around five right now the law enforcement component to this ordinance is not simply about issuing summones to persons in need it's about providing access to resources while ensuring that our public spaces remain safe accessible and welcoming for everyone if people stop connecting with street outreach groups stop connecting with homeless emergency services because they are afraid of being thrown into jail that is an unintended consequence of having this ordinance pass the council also introduced an amended version of the ordinance that doesn't ban sleeping outside in public but keeps the threat of fines and jail time for anyone who sets up a public encampment both ordinances will be discussed at the next common council meeting in about two weeks in Summit I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News