Well, Community outcry has put a controversial proposal in Paterson on hold.

The city council withdrew an ordinance this week that would punish homeless people for sleeping outdoors, facing fines and potential jail time.

At least half a dozen towns across the state have already rolled out some version of that law.

Following a landmark Supreme Court ruling allowing the bans and record high frustration with rising homelessness.

But after hearing strong opposition from residents, Paterson officials this week backed away from the plan that critics it a way to criminalize the homeless.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports.

So you pissed off enough people?

I want to remind them that we are community.

You pissed off so many of them that they actually showed up for a council meeting.

Maybe the best way to sum up the turnout at a Paterson City Council meeting Tuesday night, where droves of speakers lined up to share their anger and disgust with a proposed ordinance that would jail and sign homeless people found sleeping on the street.

The heinous act that you wanted to do to the unhoused population in the city.

I'm appalled.

This proposed ordinance criminalizes being poor outright.

People should not be punished in any way for being outside, especially if there is nowhere else to go.

At the last minute, the council president pulled the ordinance from a vote, but these folks were still ready to share their thoughts about the city's response to the growing homeless population.

Did Patterson consider the model that the state the city of Passaic, did in 2021, initiative to purchase a building, creating a safe and temporary space for the unhoused to regroup and reclaim their lives?

Or what naught they will hope village where refurbishing shipping containers, providing shelter with dignity, leading them to serve the citizens of support.

These models work.

Why are we not learning from them?

If we want to build the city?

We need to really attack.

The real root of the issue was the lack of affordable housing.

Don't attack the people without homes.

Attract the people who are building these homes that people can't rent.

The number one reason they're houses is not because of substance use disorder.

It's because evictions or people losing their homes because of shared livings.

What we need in Paterson is a municipal homeless solution platform.

We need to create a municipal homeless shelter.

We need when powered local organizations that are uniquely qualified and culturally competent, with the knowledge and expertise to serve this population.

Others shared that it would cost far more to hold the homeless in jail than to pay for shelter and blasted claims made by city officials that the homeless want to be on the street, disputing their claims that there are plenty of open beds in city shelters.

That is a lie.

I went out in the cold, yesterday, my sound and spoke with these people, and they're desperate.

We've checked the shelters in Paterson.

I was speaking to Saint Paul's yesterday.

The only men's shelter in Paterson that has emergency shelter beds.

And they're all full.

They hope that you will, in particular, listen to people who are unhoused and unsheltered in Paterson, that you will do so deliberate outreach before the next version of the ordinance.

We spoke with Paterson residents receiving free lunch at Eves Village, some who've experienced homelessness themselves.

What's he going to do?

They're going to house Joseph in jail for a little while.

They're going to let him back out the door all over again.

Get him a program.

Where are you going?

To find somebody that's homeless that has nowhere to stay.

I think they have enough money to eradicate homelessness.

Several of the council members who had planned to vote in favor of the ordinance shared how their hearts and minds were changed from the testimony.

I was in support of the ordinance.

So I listen to each and every one of you.

I am looking forward for it to come back to committee.

Have the discussions with all the entities that want to be involved in it.

All right.

With the administration.

Abdulazeez just left his council post as of today, headed for the state Assembly, where he said he'll take up this issue to bring back funding to the city to help these programs out.

But the council first needs to develop a plan for how the city will handle its homeless.

In Paterson, I'm Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotligth News.