Each year, The Planning Council’s Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) and Continuum of Care (CoC) team, along with volunteers, conduct a regionwide Point-in-Time (PIT) Count to estimate the number of unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness.
The figures referenced in the article below are drawn from the Greater Virginia Peninsula Homelessness Consortium (GVPHC) PIT report, developed by TPC’s HMIS team serving as Lead Agency. This data is submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD uses this information to inform policy decisions, guide funding allocations, and assess program effectiveness. GVPHC, led by TPC, identifies local problems, researches best practices from around the country, and builds the support needed to implement regional solutions.
After Pushback, Hampton Forms Group to Evaluate Approach to Homelessness
City Council to hear from stakeholders on suggestions in lieu of camping ban
A homeless veteran takes shelter on the streets in Hampton in February 2018. (Joe Fudge/File)
Originally published by The Virginian-Pilot on August 15, 2025 at 10:17 AM EDT. Written by Devlin Epding | devlin.epding@virginiamedia.com | Staff writer
Hampton City Council announced Wednesday it has assembled a roughly 20-person stakeholder group to work on an alternative to a proposal that would have banned camping in public spaces.
The proposal, introduced in June, received sizable community pushback from residents who asked the city to consider a more empathetic approach to homelessness.
Hampton has not yet released the names of the people selected for the stakeholder group. However, city officials said they will consist of people with diverse interests, including people who have experienced homelessness, residents, business owners, and government officials. That group will conduct a half-day session to listen and collaborate with the goal of finding solutions that protect homeless individuals’ dignity while also protecting business owners from people urinating, doing drugs or defecating outside their business.
The group will deliver a report to the council, which will vote on an updated version of the proposal in roughly 90 days, according to City Manager Mary Bunting.
The original proposed ordinance banned people from camping on public property and allowed police to seize any unattended property. Anyone in violation of the ordinance after warnings could have faced up to a year in jail or up to a $2,500 fine.
Bunting said during the council’s Wednesday work session, the original ordinance was never meant to fine or jail people experiencing homelessness, as it doesn’t make sense to add financial burdens to people with few resources. Instead, she said it was meant to give the city a tool to help respond to disruptive behavior like public indecency or noise outside businesses or neighborhoods.
“I want our public to understand that we really are trying to approach this from a very humane, empathetic, community caring perspective,” Bunting said during Wednesday’s work session. “Hampton really does care about its people, regardless of their circumstances.”
Homelessness is down in Hampton this year from 124 homeless people in a single night in 2025 compared to 166 last year, according to a new point-in-time report from the Greater Virginia Peninsula Homelessness Consortium. However, the number of chronically homeless people has more than doubled, and 10 more families are chronically homeless compared to last year.
The report noted no count of unsheltered individuals was conducted in 2025 due to poor weather, which likely makes this year’s numbers appear artificially low. Across the Peninsula, the report notes the number of homeless people counted in shelters has risen 12% since 2016.
Bunting added the city’s emphasis on community-supported actions that treat people experiencing homelessness with dignity comes in light of federal actions that have recently garnered attention.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month that called on states to clear homeless encampments and paved the way for people experiencing homelessness to be institutionalized. Trump this week also called for homeless people to leave Washington, D.C., prior to his federalization of the Metropolitan Police Department.
“Because there was so much overriding concern by people that this was about criminalizing the homeless, which it never was, the council asked us to use the stakeholder group process,” Bunting said.
Resident Cassandra Alston-Townsley spoke out against the ordinance in June. She applauded the council on Wednesday for listening to the community and looking at alternative strategies.
“I came here tonight prepared to speak on the homeless ordinance, but instead I rise simply to say thank you,” Alston-Townsley said.
John Finn is a professor at Christopher Newport University, specializing in sociology, who also spoke against the ordinance at the June meeting. He said even if the city and police department promised not to levy fines or jail time against those experiencing homelessness, the power to threaten people with those things has a similar effect.
“Even if they don’t end up jailing anyone, that’s not the point,” Finn said. “The point is the threat of jail becomes the coercive power itself to remove people, and people will be forcibly removed.”
Finn said he understands the desire for Hampton business owners to want a mechanism to address disruptive activity near their establishments. “Business owners have skin in the game, especially in as much if unruly members of the public are having mental health crises that are impacting their business,” Finn said. “They certainly do have a right to have a seat at the table or to have their voices heard.”
But he hopes the stakeholder conversations uplift homeless perspectives rather than further marginalize them.