Las Vegas aims to strengthen camping ban; minimum jail sentences loom

The city of Las Vegas is weighing whether to strengthen its camping ordinance banning homeless encampments on public spaces — including the power to arrest repeat offenders.

A bill proposal — which will be introduced at Wednesday’s City Council meeting — would amend the four-year-old law that prohibits sitting, lying or camping on a public right of way, including sidewalks.

The city noted that the agenda item, proposed by Mayor Carolyn Goodman, can’t be voted on until a later date.

The new language would align the local ordinance with a summer U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows for enforcement, including arrests, regardless of whether there is shelter space available.

Under the proposal, a person can be arrested and face a mandatory minimum jail sentence of 10 days if they are convicted of the misdemeanor offense more than twice within 12 months.

“As an alternative to the jail term specified by this Subsection, a court may order a defendant to complete a rehabilitation program, specialty court program or other program of treatment designed to assist homeless persons,” according to the amendment proposal.

Before a citation is issued, the person would first be warned that they’re in violation of the ordinance and be directed to the Courtyard Homeless Resource Center for resources, according to the city.

The proposal comes days after Clark County released the findings of its daylong homelessness census in Southern Nevada that determined a 20 percent year-over-year increase among that population, both sheltered and unsheltered, the highest number since 2014.

Volunteers in January tallied 4,202 people living on the streets, a 7 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Southern Nevada Homelessness Continuum of Care census.

“The new ordinance mostly mirrors the 2020 ordinance with the primary intent being to guide unhoused individuals to services that will help break the cycle of homelessness,” the city said. “The ordinance is intended to give unhoused individuals a choice to get assistance so that they no longer have to live in unsafe and unsanitary conditions on the street.”

The city maintains that its outreach policies have not changed.

They include its Multi-agency Outreach Resource Engagement team that provides “mobile intervention and outreach services to homeless individuals residing in encampments, living on the street, in flood control tunnels and outliving uninhabited areas around Las Vegas.”

The city of Henderson has a camping ban on the books, while North Las Vegas and Clark County don’t.

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