RIVER FALLS – While homelessness and the camping ordinance weren’t on the Aug. 22 River Falls City Council agenda, they took center stage during public comment time.

Alderperson Nick Carow (District 2) read a statement during public comment that addressed accusations made by a local homeless advocate who believes the city is turning a blind eye to homeless people and in fact, trying to drive them out of town by fining them for violating a recently passed no camping on public property ordinance.

He said we live in an age of misinformation and alternative facts and felt it was important to set the record straight.

“Tonight some people may be here to tell you details about homelessness and conduct of the city that cannot be confirmed by evidence,” Carow said. “But alternative facts do travel well on Facebook. 

“We do not have a homeless problem in the city. There are of course people experiencing homelessness in our community. These people matter, they are created in the image of God. They should be seen and heard and helped. This is a compassionate community, with compassionate leaders spread throughout businesses, our schools, churches and various civic organizations and non-profits.”

He said the city has resources for those experiencing homelessness and commended the police force for being skilled, thoughtful, deliberate and upholding the law.

“To speak something which is false is mostly allowable in a society with free speech. To say something online or in public that is misleading, uninformed and false….and to do so again….and again….and again almost feels like it borders on slander,” Carow said. “I cannot fathom why some people wish to tilt at windmills that do not exist but that is where we are today.”

Though he didn’t say so, it’s reasonable to assume his comments were directed toward town of Clifton resident Dana Linscott, a local advocate for the homeless who has consistently spoken at city council meetings on the topic for over a year. Linscott has accused Mayor Dan Toland, the city council, City Administrator Scot Simpson and Police Chief Gordon Young of ignoring his attempts to talk with them about homeless people in the city and what he believes is targeting by city ordinances and police.

“It is not okay to attack people or institutions without merit,” Carow said. “It is not okay to say things that are not true. It is a strange spectacle for someone who does not pay taxes or vote in this city to spend day after day, week after week pontificating and pandering online. Perhaps it is time to invest in the resources that are here and in our region, resources that are here helping and serving people, places like Grace Place, Our Neighbor’s Place, ARC, United Way, WestCap, Turning Point. To work on the challenges that face homelessness, poverty, we need to be making bigger tables, not attacking institutions and compassion of those currently engaged in the fight.”

Linscott approached the podium to respond to Carow’s remarks. Toland reminded him of the two-minute time limit.

“I do have evidence. I’ve offered to provide evidence,” Linscott said. “If you investigate, nobody is interested in looking at my evidence. Saying I don’t have evidence is untrue and misleading.”

The “no camping on public property” ordinance, passed by the council in June, prohibits camping on any city-owned property, except the campground, which is marked for overnight campers. The ordinance defines camping as setting up or remaining in or at a campsite. A campsite is defined as “any place where any bedding, sleeping bag or other sleeping materials are placed, established or maintained, regardless of whether such place incorporates the use of any tent, lean-to, shack or any other structure, or any vehicle or part thereof.”

“I went to the River Falls Police Department and brought it to their attention that there was no law that made it illegal for homeless people to stay on the streets of River Falls and they stopped enforcing it as if it was a law,” Linscott said about his actions in Summer 2022. “You’ve now passed an ordinance which makes it illegal and the only people it’s being enforced upon are homeless people to force them outside the city limits.”

He encouraged council members to look at his evidence and investigate his points.  

In an email to Carow sent Aug. 23 (The Journal was copied on it), Linscott said he was surprised by Carow’s comments.

“Up until that point the only response I have had from the Council (regarding my concerns about homeless residents welfare) was Mayor Toland's comment that he stopped listening a long time ago and Councilperson Odeen's comment that I might want to volunteer at Our Neighbor's Place,” Linscott wrote. “We appear to agree on nearly every point you raised except for the one about River Falls not having a homeless problem. I would like the opportunity to discuss that with you. Are you at all open to that?”

Linscott went on to say that his definition of a homeless problem is residents who lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence and have no choice but to sleep in their car, a tent or on the ground.