Columbia, Mo. – A group of community advocates, including the ACLU of Missouri, COMO Mobile Aid Collective, Mid-Missouri DSA, and Missouri Jobs with Justice, issued a letter citing the passage and use of two city ordinances to target Columbia community members who are unhoused.
The July 16th letter calls for a meeting between the mayor and advocates who live and work in Columbia and are concerned about these laws to " better understand the city’s goals, to share the concerns heard directly from members of the community, and to discuss potential solutions that promote both public safety and the well-being of all Columbians." To date, the mayor has not fulfilled the request and has failed to come to the table to meet with her constituents and community members to discuss the issues.
"As folks who live, work, and engage to make Columbia the best version of itself, we are disappointed that our requests have gone unanswered by the mayor's office," said Brittany Hughes, Deputy Director of Organizing at the ACLU of Missouri. "These ordinances disproportionately target unhoused neighbors who are expressing their constitutional right to free speech by seeking assistance on the streets. Our Constitution does not permit a lower standard of free speech simply because one is in need of assistance.”
The ordinances cited are the recently passed 14-587, which violates the rights to free speech and assembly, and the existing 17-95, which allows the city to target and punish people for sleeping in public while failing to address the myriad of complex issues that actually cause housing instability.
“We oppose Columbia’s continued targeting of our unhoused neighbors through the use of ordinances that criminalize speech or resting in a public space, while doing nothing to address the root of the problem,” said Executive Director at the COMO Mobile Aid Collective.. “Rather than solutions that uplift – such as addressing financial & food insecurity and lack of affordable housing & other resources – these simply create more trauma, including more interactions with police, courts, and jails. This, in turn, costs the taxpayers more money in the long run.”
Advocates requested, and continue to request, a meeting with Mayor Buffaloe and City Council members to discuss concerns and to offer alternative means of addressing housing instability and poverty in Columbia that protect and respect individuals and their civil rights.
Read full letter.