BOZEMAN — As winter weather begins to set in, I'm checking in with some of Bozeman's urban campers on how they’re preparing for the cold weather—especially as urban camping laws are set to change.
"It’s been rough out here, it’s not easy. Everybody makes this seem like glamping you know, glamorous camping. And it’s not glamorous," says Steven Ankney, one of the people who has turned to urban camping to support himself through housing struggles.
He says the new ordinance will create more challenges for campers.
"It’s heartbreaking, it really is heartbreaking. I take off my own jacket for other people all the time and let them have it because I don’t want to see somebody else cold. Because I know what it’s like to be cold," Ankney says.
On Oct. 22, the Bozeman City Commission made what Interim City Manager Chuck Winn says was a difficult decision to approve an ordinance to phase out urban camping in the next year.
"This started during the pandemic, and prior to the pandemic, we didn’t allow camping on our streets. It was certainly a traumatic event for our whole country, really for the whole world. And so, what happened there, we’re having to walk back now, and that’s not an easy process to do," says Winn.
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The new ordinance will prevent campers from parking near waterways, place limits on noise and excess trash, and will now require campers to have a permit.
Winn says, "I believe this new ordinance gives us tools that we didn’t have before. We've already seen a change on our streets, a change in our right of ways—that feels good. And we're able to connect people who need services to those services—that feels good, too."
As the ordinance goes into effect on Nov. 22, Winn says 48 permit applications have already been received and 15 approved.
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The first permit period has been extended to after the holidays, but all the following permits will have to be renewed every 30 days.
"Hopefully what we have there is cleaner, there’s less conflict with neighbors, there is an increased sense of safety, and some of the environmental challenges we’ve had with some of these campsites have been addressed," says Winn.
Ankney says, "I’m hoping, hoping and praying to God that I'm out of this next year. This is my last winter here, I hope."
