Naperville To Homeless Guy: Scram!

By Prescott Carlson in News on Oct 7, 2009 7:20PM

Naperville, home to 7-figure historic houses, Ribfest, and 2 Targets is a suburbanite wet dream. Which is probably why their city council doesn't want homeless people cluttering up their spiffy downtown. They recently passed an ordinance 6 votes to 1 "banning sleeping, camping and storing personal property" anywhere on their downtown streets. The Naperville city attorney says they enacted this measure to "protect the economic vitality" of the area.

But lest you think downtown Naperville has become some sort of shanty town, the move seems aimed solely at one person -- Scott Huber. Huber, 58, settled in on a Naperville sidewalk in 2001 and he's been in the same spot ever since. Huber claims he is "protesting city government injustices against him" by living there, and that "there is no excuse for those affluent and holier than thou in Naperville to violate federal law and ban [his] presence." He even ran for mayor (surprisingly, he lost).

The Daily Herald reports Councilman Richard Furstenau defending his vote saying, "To me this is an encampment that's been going on for a while and getting bigger and more elaborate in the last couple years than a lot of us can handle. It's time we put an end to this." Violators of the ordinance face a fine of $50 -- the fine increases to $100 for third and subsequent violations. No word on how exactly the city expects to ever collect on those fines.