On a frozen Monday, as homeless people in Colorado Springs endured hell, the City Council cast a no camping ordinance into purgatory.

Advocates of a law making it illegal to camp in public rights-of-way can still work on it until it comes back to the council in February. But several council members made it clear they don’t like the idea, especially because no one has yet devised an alternative for where the homeless can go if they are evicted.

Councilman Tom Gallagher easily was the most strident opponent, recalling how he once lived under a bridge himself.

“Where else do they go?” Gallagher asked. “The gauge of a community is how it treats its least fortunate. I’m more compassionate than this ordinance, and I’m a son of a bitch.”

One tough part of this is that owners of homes or businesses within hailing distance of the camps have a fair complaint. The proposed ordinance aims to help them move camps away from their doors.

The other tough part is that in its draft form, the no camping ordinance would allow city officials to have free rein, essentially, to force hundreds of homeless people out of their camps overnight.

This year, the police department’s Homeless Outreach Team’s new approach of trying to link homeless people with social services has won praise from nearly everyone. Nobody thinks the police would use a new ordinance to pursue a radical new agenda.

Trouble is, a new City Council could use a no camping ordinance in a harsher way, giving new marching orders to the police. Any proposal must be evaluated by how it could be used, not by who is in office at the moment.