June 2, 2026
Members of Brevard City Council discuss the growing issue of homeless residents in downtown Brevard at the June 1 City Council meeting. Jonathan Rich / Brevard Beagle
Jonathan Rich
BrevardBeagle.com
At the close of Monday night’s Brevard City Council meeting, Mayor Maureen Copelof inserted a new item of discussion where she typically summarizes the gathering’s main points and promotes the next ‘Meet the Mayor’ session.
She raised the idea that the city of Brevard needed to review its ordinances related to how law enforcement interact with the growing homeless/unhoused population downtown and asked if those individuals living on the streets or camping on public property should be charged with criminal instead of civil violations of already established downtown laws and policies.
“I’m going to do this a little bit differently than in the past,” Copelof prefaced the time she had always previously reserved for final remarks by council members, “Tonight I am going to bring up an item I think we would like Council to consider. I think you are all aware of this and I want to hear whether or not you agree and think staff should look forward and into the proposal.
“The proposal is to look into updating our code of ordinances to give law enforcement additional tools to combat loitering, trespassing, and public substance use; issues that have been occurring with greater frequency in downtown Brevard. I have been hearing from both private citizens as well as our downtown businesses regarding this issue.
“There are several ordinances that if we updated these and we made the misdemeanor offense a criminal offenses instead of civil offenses,” she continued. “It would give our Police Department the ability to deal with the situation in ways that they do not have right now. You may remember, about three years ago the General Assembly changed local ordinances so that unless you specifically asked for an exemption local ordinances are not criminal offenses. They are civil offenses. So when our police are out dealing with these issues, they have to deal with it as a civil offense. That means they issue a citation for a fine and it never actually gets into the criminal system.
“There is a way to go back that staff is proposing they look at to say that we actually want to have these offenses as misdemeanor offenses,” Copelof elaborated. “We are not asking for approval for this tonight; what we are asking for is that Council give sort of a concurrence that it is worth staff time and effort to research what this would take, maybe research what other cities have done, and bring back a proposal regarding these specific items which are loitering, trespassing, consumption or possession of alcoholic beverages in a public place and relook at our hours of operation ordinance, which actually needs to be updated.”
“This is just the very first step at looking at how we can strengthen these so that we can deal with what is becoming more and more of an issue in our downtown,” Copelof concluded.
That request kicked off another 15 minutes of discussion on the issue and below is what each member of Brevard City Council and administration present Monday night said on the topic of downtown Brevard’s growing homeless population.
Councilman Dean Lytle
“I think it’s good to explore and to look at it,” Lytle said. “I would want to make sure that we have all the information we need about intended outcome and how the changes in these ordinances would look on a practical basis for our constituents. The more information the better, and I’m looking forward to chatting about it at the Public Safety Committee, should Council feel we should do so.
Obviously, there is a population that is vulnerable and will fall into this category. That is the unhoused population that are downtown. Obviously, what we don’t want to do is criminalize homelessness, but at the same time we want to make sure that everyone feels safe.
The other comment that I will make simultaneously, obviously, this is an issue that we need to tackle in terms of solutions and this will possibly equip us to take care of the symptoms, but we need to find solutions more long-term.
I’ll be running a task force, that is unofficial, that I’m hoping the Council continues to understand that is really important. I’m willing to tackle that on my own with lots of great folks within the city, but I want to make sure that the Council understands that at some point, if I do need the help of the city on an official basis that I will not hesitate to do so, to ask, but I don’t anticipate that being something that happens at the beginning.
We need information to gather some of the strategies that we need to enact and we need to do that fast.”
Gary Daniel
“I would be interested in hearing what the chief’s comments are on this.”
Brevard Police Chief Christy Wentzell
“I would recommend that it is something that we do look into given that it is something that my officers do encounter on a daily basis.
We often times will refer members of our unhoused population to resources that are available, whereas the offenses that are still being committed, it is not necessarily to criminalize being unhoused.
But the behaviors do create issues for the businesses. They do create issues and we have received several complaints from visitors. Not to say that our hands are tied as far as enforcement, but we can write a civil citation. We don’t have any other real availability from a law enforcement standpoint to make the impact that I feel that some of the businesses and visitors to downtown are looking for from the Police Department.”
Gary Daniel:
“Well, I will agree with you that we need more information.”
Aaron Baker:
“I will agree that we should look into updating or adding to our ordinances as needed. I would echo some of what Councilman Lytle said in that we need to make sure that when we are doing that our focus is on public safety and not necessarily trying to just whisk away a problem that is incredibly visible to all.
The other thing that I’ll say is that obviously the city needs to do everything in its power to help with this, but this is a social issue.
This is a human issue and certainly, we need to be sure that we are keeping the public safe, but issues with the unhoused are not something that you can pick up the phone and fix.
A police officer is not going to fix homelessness.
The mayor is not going to fix homelessness.
I understand the concerns people have. I would just ask, and I don’t want to get too ‘woo woo’ up here, but there are human issues and these people are part of our human family.
It is not as easy to solve as picking up the phone and complaining about something that you see.
I think it really is a call to action for all of us to reckon with the issues that we are seeing out there. That’s housing. It’s mental health care, which we have almost a complete lack of, We have organizations that are working really diligently, but being in a rural place it’s just hard to come across those resources
The city needs to do everything we can to keep people safe, obviously, but I hope that we can continue to work with the partner organizations that are working with this.
I think in the county’s capacity, that’s being over public health. I hope that we can work with the county on this and ultimately the state and federal government on an issue that really runs the gamut and really needs a solution beyond just any ordinance or anything like that.
I definitely think we should look into it and I think that we can have those discussions when they come across.”
Pamela Holder
“I too agree with exploring what we can do as far as the best alternative for, as Aaron noted, our human citizens who are a part of Brevard, just in a different way.
I hope this won’t close the chapter or the efforts that are being made to get alternatives for the unhoused.
I do think it needs to come to City Council in some form. I strongly supported a committee at the retreat and I still say that because it is a city problem. It is not just for the unhoused to fix. It is for us to help fix it.
And so, how can we do that without criminalizing a lifestyle that some of them may not have chose for themselves?”
Councilman Lauren Wise
“I actually think, Maureen, that you had said a number of months ago that it is not a crime to not own a house. I think that is an important piece to consider.
It is also very possible for all of us to commit crimes, whether we own property or not.
I do think we should look at ordinances as some folks, no matter what their situations are, are committing crimes. I look at this also as a kind of public health and safety issue. We’ve had some real health and safety issues happening that really have to be corrected.”
City Attorney Mack McKeller
“I wasn’t asked, but I’ll weigh in. I think these amendments to the ordinance, at least looking into it, are a worthwhile effort and I look forward to getting into that and doing that. I think when we first went back and included things in 2021, due to the General Assembly’s actions trying to decriminalize ordinances, these were some that were close to statewide crimes, but I think that our Police Department could use a little more specificity and not have to guess at what’s going on.
I’m pretty confident that is what I’m going to discover as I look through this, but I wanted to say that I appreciate what you’re saying and I think it’s wise.”
City staff will research the issue, report any findings back to the Public Safety Committee, which will then make any recommendations to Brevard City Council to be discussed at a public hearing held during a future City Council meeting.