Aurora councilmembers on Monday finalized an ordinance to outright ban camping along the I-225 corridor.

The ordinance is part of a two-move plan, proponents of which are calling a “tough love” approach, to address homelessness in the city. The second part of the approach, passed in a previous council meeting, creates a special court for misdemeanors by homeless people. 

The approach affirms Aurora’s preferred path to curbing its homelessness problem — by giving individuals the opportunity to accept services, including treatment, on the one hand, and by adopting, on the other hand, a policy akin to zero tolerance for people who refuse help.

The camping ban puts the entire I-225 corridor under a new no trespass ordinance, in which individuals are ticketed and given a date to appear in court. No more warnings are given before tents and camps are swept by city officials. And, as envisioned, the specialized court will deal with low-level offenses by homeless people, such as violating the trespass ordinance, illegal drug possession or retail theft.

“We want people to accept help and experience recovery and healing,” ordinance sponsor Councilmember Steve Sundberg said Monday night. “We want people to get help, but not do whatever the hell they want to do.”

Mayor Mike Coffman said he supports the ordinance.

“The goal is not to punish, the goal is to get them into treatment,” Coffman said Monday. 

Councilmember Alison Coombs said the ordinance would tap further into a resource that is already limited in the city, adding that there was no note in the ordinance about how its passage would impact staff time and cost. 

If they were to clear every homeless person off of the streets “we would not have the bed capacity to offer housing to every single one of those people,” Coombs said. 

Two community members also showed up to Monday’s meeting to speak on the ordinance.

Michael Nicosia called the ordinance “untenable” and “counter-productive.”

Nicosia experienced homelessness earlier in life and urged councilmembers to take homeless peoples’ voices and stories into consideration, as well as the voices of people who advocate for them.

“I ask you to vote against enshrining tough love into policy,” he told the council. “At the very least, postpone the vote until you take such stories seriously.”

Trudie Adams said the area near her house has been “infested” with homeless people, “and not good homeless people,” she said, citing incidents of naked people in their pool and safety issues like left-behind used needles. 

“We have people bringing trash into our condo complex, which we have to haul away and pay for, we have people sleeping in our grass,” she said. “We have been inundated for years now with homeless people.”

The ordinance passed Monday night with three “no” votes from councilmembers Alison Coombs, Ruben Medina and Crystal Murillo.