The expansion of a “sit/lie” ordinance that prohibits anyone from blocking access and movements on sidewalks, alleys, roads and other public right of way in the central and westside commercial districts of Colorado Springs received final approval from City Council Tuesday, but not without objections.

Councilwoman Yolanda Avila said in voting against the proposal at the first vote taken Jan. 14 that she “vehemently opposes” the ordinance, which initially was enacted in 2016 and as of now has been amended twice to broaden its area of coverage.

The measure passed Tuesday on a 7-2 vote, with Council members Yolanda Avila and Nancy Henjum not supporting the proposal.

Avila reiterated her view that the ban “criminalizes our most vulnerable” by ticketing primarily homeless people for certain behaviors.

The ordinance does not criminalize homelessness but rather “provides law enforcement the authority to enforce measures and that we have the contact we need,” argued Jessie Kimber, the city’s director of economic development, which works with other city departments such as police and homelessness outreach.

Several people spoke against the extension during the public comment period.

“I don’t have to worry about being harassed when I’m stationarily existing in public. These laws don’t apply to people like me or you,” said resident EmRhys Jenkins, who volunteers with a homeless service provider. “They really dehumanize people who are just trying to survive. It terrifies me we are able to treat people this way.”

Between January 2022 and September 2024, police issued 130 citations for violations of the ordinance, said Lt. Brian Steckler, who oversees the city’s homeless street outreach teams.

If the new boundaries, which include the east side of South Nevada Avenue to South Wahsatch Avenue to Southgate and Cheyenne Road, had been in place, there would have been three additional tickets, he said.

The downtown restriction begins at Cache la Poudre Street and primarily runs east of Interstate 25, stretching south for 3 miles to Cheyenne Road. The shopping district of Old Colorado City is also part of the zone.

“It’s just another way to make them ‘the other,’” Avila said at the Jan. 14 meeting. “It’s a revolving door — housing the unhoused in jail is not the solution. This whole idea we’re really putting a dent by arresting people who are sitting and lying, come on, what kind of city area we? Obviously not a city of compassion.”

Councilman Dave Leinweber said he favors a “tough love approach,” using tools such as the sit-lie law that “give officers what they need to really go after this problem, but we have to remember there’s a love component to tough love.”

Avila also said she doesn’t think the ordinance is effective.

“It doesn’t work,” she said Tuesday. “Our largest mental health facility is the jail, and it’s a revolving door. It hasn’t helped.”

Leaders of local merchants’ groups disagree.

Such an ordinance is necessary for businesses that are already struggling with rising rents, inflation and increasing wages, said Hannah Parsons, interim CEO of the Downtown Partnership of Colorado Springs.

“Having to manage access to their residences and storefronts is another layer that makes it harder to do business because of the number of people sleeping and lying in doorways or blocking access to retail and activities,” she said in an interview, adding that it’s not that proprietors are unsympathetic.

While acknowledging that a small percentage of the homeless population causes problems, the issues have mounted for Mountain Wookies, said Zoe Clark, who on Tuesday was managing the head shop on South Nevada Avenue that specializes in hemp clothing, products for marijuana users and metaphysical items.

“We’ve been waiting for this and are happy about it,” Clark said of the law’s zone extension, which now encompasses Mountain Wookies.

What’s useful, said Parsons, is that “it gives the business owner or residents the tool to say can you please move along, it violates an ordinance for you to be laying here in this time frame.”

The law covers the hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

A downtown security force tracked 188 instances last year of people violating the sit-lie ordinance, Parsons said, which her organization refers to as the “pedestrian-access act.”

Downtown security teams, merchants and residents who invoke the policy also provide homeless people with local resources available, such as local emergency shelters and soup kitchens, she said.

Andrea Warner, president of Old Colorado City Associates, another merchants’ group, calls the sit-lie ordinance “a starting point” for business districts, and said it helped clear doorways and benches in front of stores and at bus stops so that they are more readily available for tourists and residents who shop in the historic neighborhood.

“It’s not a solution,” she said, “but it’s a beginning.”