MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Madison Mayor Paul Soglin is renewing a push to ban homeless from sleeping or lying down on sidewalks downtown during the day.
A growing number of cities are using the strategy to cut down on encampments and messy sleeping quarters irking tourists and business owners. But homeless advocates criticize such proposals as criminalizing homelessness and say Soglin's proposal is undermining the community's good efforts to get homeless individuals into housing.
Soglin's proposed ordinance would bar individuals from lying down or sleeping on public sidewalks downtown or city office land from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. It's modeled after similar ordinances in Portland and Honolulu.
According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 100 cities had such bans in place in 2014, compared to 70 in 2011.
