Panhandling will be a misdemeanor in Charlotte starting on March 1. Police will also be able to give criminal citations for things like sleeping on a park bench, going to the bathroom in public and other lewd behavior.

Charlotte City Council members on Monday night voted 7-3 to criminalize six city ordinances.

A 2021 state law decriminalized local ordinances, making violations civil infractions. But state lawmakers gave cities the option to make them misdemeanors. The changes in Charlotte mean people could now be arrested for things like sleeping in parks or panhandling. 

Opponents of the move said the city council was targeting homeless people.

"This proposal, a regression to failed and cruel policies which would criminalize sleeping in parks, panhandling, public urination and defecation, among other behaviors effectively criminalizes houselessness and is part of the larger war against unhoused people in this country," the ACLU of North Carolina said. 

"Not only are laws criminalizing houselessness ineffective and a waste of public resources, they violate basic human rights, strip unhoused people of their dignity, and fall disproportionately on people of color," the ACLU said.

Opponents to the change lined up to speak against criminalizing the ordinances, but they ultimately passed. 

"In the last two years, there have been a number of public safety concerns in Uptown Charlotte," said city council member Malcolm Graham. "We all deserve to live in an environment that is safe, that is clean, that we know our neighbors, that we have the ability to walk our dogs, to walk our children throughout the community."

Council members Tiawana Brown, Renee Johnson and LaWana Mayfield voted no. The rest voted to approve the change. 

The newly criminalized infractions are all Class 3 misdemeanors, which are punishable with a fine of up to $500.