WATERTOWN — On Monday night, city resident Jonathan Phillips expressed his frustration to City Council members over seeing five shopping carts that people abandoned along Mill Street two weeks ago.

He’s tired of the eyesores that he sees almost on a daily basis. They are stolen by homeless people who keep their belongings or stolen merchandise in them, Phillips claimed.

The Mill Street resident thinks it’s time that the City Council does something about it. He’s urging council members to pass a measure to ban shopping carts on public property.

“Wholeheartedly, I’d like to see them banned,” he told council members during the Monday night meeting.

In recent meetings, the subject of abandoned shopping carts has been discussed by council and residents.

Councilman Benjamin Shoen first brought up the issue, expressing that carts are found all over the city, that they are stolen and nothing is being done to prevent it. They’re a nuisance and are another sign that the city is in decline, he said.

He has seen deserted shopping carts from Hannaford, Walmart, Dollar General and as far as Target on outer Arsenal Street on sidewalks and along the side of the road.

In response to Shoen’s comments, city resident Lee Brown said she was “disturbed” by the idea of the city banning shopping carts on city property, questioning whether Shoen couldn’t “see any benefit” for the homeless using shopping carts to store their belongings.

It’s just something that happens when the city has a growing homeless population, Brown said.

Despite getting that backlash, Shoen agreed with Phillips that the city should do something. Shoen plans to introduce a local law that would prohibit carts on city property. He has talked to City Attorney Kristen Smith about what the city can do.

“The council knows my position on this, city staff probably knows my position, residents definitely do,” he said. “I see stolen carts all the time. I send you guys photos of stolen carts. Stolen property or cans are stored in them and they’re dumped when they’re done with them.”

Mayor Sarah V.C. Pierce plans to support what Shoen wants to do with the issue.

Even with support increasing, Councilman Cliff G. Olney III would like the city to take a different approach. The city should provide a safe, secure place for the homeless to keep their belongings in a locker, lock it up with a key and let people return to pick the items up later.

Last week, former Mayor Jeffrey E. Graham complained that a shopping cart filled with several items was left in his driveway on Pearl Street. It irritated him, so he removed it from his driveway and put it on the city-owned margin.

Carts are a problem, he said.

He’s been skeptical that council would take up the issue. Graham also questioned the effectiveness of any local laws meant to address the issue.

“I’m glad they’re talking about it,” Graham said.

Grocery stores and retailers are losing shopping carts to theft by the homeless, an assistant manager with the Arsenal Street General Dollar said. It’s not so much a problem with that Dollar General but it is with the stores on Route 11 and Eastern Boulevard, she said.

The Arsenal Street Dollar General has an abundance of shopping carts — those taken from the other two stores and brought to her store by city workers, she said.

Retailers attribute the loss of shopping carts to “shrinkage,” or shoplifted merchandise, the Dollar General assistant manager said. The carts cost between $165 and $350, according to a grocery store trade website.

Binghamton, Oneida and Glenville are among communities in New York that have established laws regarding abandoned shopping carts. Generally, it’s unlawful to remove, possess or abandon a shopping cart from a retailer’s parking lot. But it’s the responsibility of the cart’s owner to retrieve them, according to those laws.

For safety and security reasons, the city’s two warming centers — where the unhoused can get out from the cold — do not allow shopping carts inside their buildings. The Salvation Army permits them on the property while the New Life Christian Church Center has banned them from the grounds.

Toni Camara, who runs the warming center at the church, said shopping carts are “not an issue.” Guests can only bring two bags inside with them.

Salvation Army Capt. Josh Morales agreed that the number of shopping carts around the city is annoying — they make the city look bad.

But he also has empathy for the unhoused.

“They are not as blessed as we are,” he said. “Not all of us are blessed with property we own. They don’t have anywhere to live. All of their belongings are in (the carts). Their whole world is in them.”