Coming soon: Ban on homeless people sleeping outside in Clark County

The Clark County Commission on Tuesday voted to approve a camping ban that will impact those in the homeless community who loiter and sleep on public spaces.

The ordinance — which allows up to 10 days in jail for repeat offenders if they refuse services — will go into effect on Feb. 1.

Commissioner William McCurdy II was the dissenting vote.

While new social services resources are in the pipeline, McCurdy said: “I think that we are prematurely getting ready to implement this.”

The ordinance bans camping in places such as trails, parks, underpasses, washes and tunnels.

The person would first be informed they’re violating the law and be informed of shelter space and social services. They can simply move, but if they return to the same spot, they could be subject to a citation or arrest, according to the ordinance.

The law will not be enforced if there’s no public shelter space available.

County officials noted that more housing and services are in the works to help ease the homelessness crisis.

A provision allows officials to impound personal property from penalized persons, which they would be able to retrieve.

“The property shall be stored for a minimum of 30 days during which time it will be made reasonably available to any individual claiming ownership,” the ordinance said.

Clark County will join the cities of Las Vegas and Henderson, which have similar laws.

The Las Vegas City Council could vote Wednesday to strengthen its ban, aligning it with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared such ordinances constitutional.

If passed, Las Vegas enforcement would be permitted regardless of shelter space availability.

Scot Rutledge, chairman of the HopeLink of Southern Nevada nonprofit, said the ordinance lacked clarity as to how penalizing homelessness would play into the score the federal government uses to issue grants.

“The first person we criminalize for actually being homeless … Is that really who we are? Is that who we want to be as a community?” he asked commissioners.

“We also really don’t like the idea of people put in jail that were trying to escape a bad problem already” by sleeping in public surrounded by people they know, he added.

He said the public would’ve been “better served” if the meeting was held another day and not during Election Day.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.