In the spring, Mayor Peter Marchetti put an ordinance before the City Council that would have criminalized outdoor camping on public property in Pittsfield.
“The sanitation issue is something loud and clear that we're hearing from the downtown merchants and the feces that we're finding in the downtown and the needles that we're finding in the downtown," he said. "What is the cause and how can we ensure that, from a sanitation standpoint, that is cleaned up?”
Speaking with WAMC in September, Marchetti framed his attempt to curtail the presence of unhoused people as both a public safety measure and an attempt to appease disgruntled business owners – though he acknowledged hard data on the situation remained elusive.
“I don't know specifically about how much feces or needles," Marchetti admitted. "The one thing that we are working on, and as you know, I have quarterly downtown meetings with the with the merchants, and so I'm working on data to be able to present to them with the number of calls that have taken place over the summer.”
David Tierney, one of those businesspeople, spoke out on the issue at a council meeting in June.
“Why is the business community bearing all the burden of this issue while the social services and the police receive millions of taxpayer dollars?" he asked. "If you truly believe the drug addicted are not the problem and you think that that it's a good thing to let them sleep in our doorways, please walk in our shoes. Take the drug addicted home where you have invested all your money, where your livelihood is. Let them sleep on your porch. Let them use your sidewalk as a toilet. Let them leave dirty needles in your bushes. Let them steal your stuff. Let them have sex behind your garage, in front of the neighbor's kids, because this is all what is happening on North Street.”
The proposal proved immediately controversial, especially on the heels of Marchetti’s similarly contentious effort to criminalize panhandling at intersections, which the City Council rejected weeks prior. The punitive nature of the ordinance as originally written, directed at Pittsfield’s most vulnerable community members, led to harsh condemnation at City Council meetings for months.
“Many of our unhoused neighbors have income. In fact, over half of them are working or receiving some sort of income and pay state and federal income tax. Every one of them pays local sales tax every single day when they buy food, clothing, survival gear, and some, a hotel room so they can have a shower. These are taxpayers, they are residents, they are people, and this ordinance speaks about them like their nuisances or some problem to be cleared away," said Pittsfielder Abbe Charbonneau, who spoke out against the camping ban at a City Council meeting in May. “This is not safety, it's cruelty written into law. And who are we talking about, really? These aren't strangers. They're veterans, seniors, people with disabilities, people fleeing domestic violence, people who've worked jobs, paid taxes, and still could not pay their rent, people who, despite everything, are trying to survive with dignity. One is my little brother, who is neither a criminal nor an addict, but a college educated man struggling with mental illness who's volunteered at nursing homes, play groups, and he's trying to survive in a city with extremely limited access to care and resources. Is he garbage to you?”
While Pittsfield argued over the measure, another community in the WAMC listening area – Saratoga Springs – passed its own controversial camping ban in a close vote this summer.
Pittsfield’s City Council eventually stripped away the criminalization elements of the camping ban amid criticism, and by September, councilors like Patrick Kavey of Ward 5 had signed on to requests for City Hall to undertake other holistic efforts to deal with homelessness, including a comprehensive city-wide housing plan.
“We're asking for data, because it's important to make decisions based on data of our current housing stock and then what our needs are," he said. "So, building housing, rehabilitating existing units, creating more apartments, expanding pathways to home ownership. If we don't address housing, we're just treating the symptoms of the problem.”
New housing is finally coming on line in Pittsfield this winter after millions of dollars of investment and years of development, including new permanent supportive housing units at the new First Street Apartments and at 111 West Housatonic Street.
As Pittsfield’s government prepares to begin a new term in January, the camping ban remains tied up in review – now with the city’s board of health. Current Council Vice President and at-large Representative Earl Persip – who was the top vote getter in the thinly attended municipal election in November – offered WAMC his vision for the ban’s future when it eventually returns before the body.
“I'm a proponent of holding people accountable for actions that we don't want in our downtown, but I'm also, let's be compassionate about things," said Persip. "Criminalizing those things doesn't make sense. The ordinance as it first came to us 100% did not make sense to me. But I also am a- We have to listen to downtown businesses, and we have to hold people accountable, and there's nothing wrong. We can do both. It's just a fine line, and we, it took us a long time to get there, but I think now we have both sides kind of working with each other to try to come up with something that makes sense for everybody and that will actually work.”
Pittsfield’s City Council holds its first meeting of 2026 on Tuesday, Jan. 13.
