The recent Spokane City Council action to suspend enforcement of the city’s “sit-lie” ordinance while the city addresses a lack of homeless shelters likely was taken through a sense of compassion, but the action was unneeded and helps no one. Even worse, it hinders efforts to encourage a segment of the homeless population to connect with services that might help them get off the streets.

While the ordinance, enacted in 2013, was born out of a desire to dissuade and deter a small minority of the homeless population from blocking public spaces, hindering business traffic, and participating in criminal activity, it also was fashioned with a sense of compassion.

The enforcement measures are intended to induce a small minority of homeless people living on downtown streets and sidewalks who refuse help, or deny that they need it, into seeking help and accepting services. They include people with substance addictions, mental illness, other health issues, or co-occurring conditions.

Mark Richard, president of Downtown Spokane Partnership, who helped write the ordinance, says a number of people have been placed under court order to get help. Some ultimately have succeeded, he says, but while the ordinance is suspended, that’s no longer happening.

The ordinance requires enforcement officers to provide warnings before citations can be issued. Enforcement officers are in communication with the city’s Community, Housing & Human Services department and are aware when shelters are available.

Only people who take no steps to connect with services and refuse to move are cited—and then only when shelter is available.

For those who receive citations, a community court is held at an accessible location in the city core—the Spokane Public Library.

There, officers of the court and social service professionals work together to build custom programs based on the needs of each individual. Programs could include connections with health care, addiction treatment, and behavioral health providers. If the person receiving the citation follows the recommendations of the court, the citation can be expunged.

The Council last month, however, seized on a recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals ruling that a Boise, Idaho, sit-lie ordinance can’t be enforced when no shelter space is available. The Council basically determined that ruling applies in Spokane, which also currently has a shortage of homeless shelter space.

One important difference, however, between the ordinance here and the Boise ordinance is that the Spokane ordinance already is worded so that no one gets cited when no shelter space is available. So, the Spokane ordinance never was at odds with the federal appeals court’s findings in the Boise ordinance.

The notion that the ordinance is intended to criminalize homelessness, or that the mission of those who enforce it is to harass the helpless and violate their civil rights is misguided.

There’s no single answer to the question of how to address homelessness. But suspending an ordinance that’s intended to help a small part of the homeless population and that has support of the business community affected by it, isn’t part of the answer.