CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - The Champaign City Council is voting on a new public ordinance that would ban camping on all public property across the city.

While city officials say it's about safety, homeless advocacy groups argue that this could deepen a growing crisis.

"We have twice as many homeless residents with half as many emergency beds as we did ten years ago, and many of those emergency beds are slated to close this spring," said Danielle Chynoweth, the supervisor for Cunningham Township and chair of the Continuum Service Providers for the Homeless.

A Supreme Court ruling last summer now allows cities to enforce camping bans, but advocates say these rules are essentially bans on the homeless and harm more than they help.

Twenty-one cities across Illinois have considered similar ba

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