AKRON, Ohio - The Akron Board of Zoning Appeals on Wednesday denied a variance that would have enabled activist Sage Lewis to re-open a tent encampment for the homeless on property he owns in the Middlebury neighborhood.
Board members said granting the variance sought by Lewis and his nonprofit, the Homeless Charity, would have required a change in the city’s zoning laws, a change the board lacks the authority to make.
After the ruling, Lewis told cleveland.com he intends to appeal the decision in Summit County Common Pleas Court with assistance from the Institute for Justice, an advocacy law firm based in Arlington, Virginia.
Lewis dismantled his so-called Second Change Village earlier this month under orders from the city. At its peak, the encampment at 15 Broad St. had provided shelter for 45 homeless people.
Wednesday’s ruling followed a hearing during which Lewis sought permission to re-establish the encampment to provide emergency shelter for people living in woods and in the streets.
Lewis told the board that his charity is willing to comply with city directives for an emergency tent encampment, such as limiting the number of tents allowed and making them more uniform or invisible to neighbors.
“What we’re really trying to do here is start a conversation, open a dialogue” he said. “I can get you experts. I would be happy to do anything for you to move this conversation forward.”
Lewis has maintained that the encampment is a needed interim step for the “severely homeless,” which are those who have lived in the woods or on the road for many years and are unable to easily acclimate into society.
Keith Stahl, speaking on of Continuum of Care, a coalition of agencies offering housing and services to the homeless, told board members tent encampments create a mentality that it’s okay for people to live in substandard housing, he said.
“The answer to homelessness is not tents. It’s housing,” Stahl said.
On Tuesday, the Continuum of Care conducted its annual count of Summit County’s homeless. Stahl said and his colleagues found no homeless people at small tent encampments they visited around the area because they were in shelters or staying with friends or relatives because of the bitter-cold weather.
But Lewis said many homeless people are coming to his charity seeking shelter because of the cold weather or because they have been thrown out of abandoned buildings by law enforcement.
“I can’t even keep up with the homeless the city is making,” he said. “It’s madness.”
Last fall, the city denied Lewis a conditional-use permit to make the encampment a legal campground. Then, in December, the city issued him a notice to vacate the property, saying the encampment violated city zoning laws, and negatively affected the health and safety of residents, including the encampment occupants.
Lewis and the Institute for Justice also have a lawsuit pending lawsuit against the city. The suit maintains that Lewis has the right to shelter people on his private property.
He told cleveland.com on Wednesday he remains committed to pursuing justice for the homeless.
“We believe if they are not able to use the existing shelter system, someone should have the fundamental humanitarian right to shelter these people in some way as opposed to just throwing them back into the street because we have a one size first all solution,” he said.
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