LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A new ordinance will soon ban camping in public places in Clark County.

There was debate over the ordinance before commissioners passed the measure Tuesday.

The order specifies that camping would be prohibited in certain places including:

• Any public right-of-way
• Any trail, park or park facility
• Any public building, public parking lot or public land
• Any public property where camping obstructs or interferes with the intended public use of the property

Several seniors told commissioners that something needs to be done because they don’t feel safe in their community.
“We’re under siege. We have an affordable housing crisis and you’re building these senior buildings in distressed areas where the only people in distress are seniors,” Eleanor Abrante said. “Homeless people gather around us and prey on us. I’ve had three cars stolen and broken into. Catalytic converters taken. They come into our buildings. Nobody cares.”

“In my neighborhood there is a huge homeless camp. There have been fires. There have been robberies. I live in an over 55 community. Last month there were at least least three thefts, just in my community, in a week “They break into the storage sheds. They’re breaking into homes,” Fran Amarez said. “I know the legislature has been working on this and it seems like the homeless population continues to grow.”

According to the order, a person will first be notified that they are in violation of the order. Then, they will receive information about the location and availability of homeless shelter services and direct that person to another location. If the person refuses to go to an available shelter or returns to the same area, they may be cited or arrested.

The ordinance originally provided that people who violated the order would be convicted of a misdemeanor and would spend up to six months in jail or be fined $1,000. After speaking with advocates across the valley, the wording of the order was changed: Those found guilty could spend up to 10 days in jail.

Despite the change, several local leaders said the penalties may still be too harsh.

“Being homeless should not be a crime and this criminalizes homelessness,” said Scott Rutledge, president of Hopelink of Southern Nevada. “That might not happen if we don’t put anyone in jail. It could sit there as an ordinance and we would never put anyone in jail. But the first person we criminalize because they’re actually homeless, it ‘is who we are as a community?’

“Our goal, for our entire section, we don’t want to arrest anyone,” said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Officer Matt Kovacich, who oversees Metro’s behavioral health unit. This includes homeless outreach teams. “We want to give them help. We want to give them whatever means necessary to rehabilitate them into society, whether it’s mental health help or housing help. We have social workers embedded in our Clark County unit to help bridge this gap.”

Commissioner William McCurdy II expressed concern that the county was moving too quickly in greenlighting the ordinance.

“We still have some projects in the works that are not yet renovated or available. We just approved some of those projects, but until they come online, I don’t know. It hasn’t happened yet. makes sense, to me, that we would adopt this,” McCurdy said. “I just think we’re in a really tough situation. We’re spending more money than we can afford and more money than we’re going to have in the future because a lot of that money was from the ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act).

However, Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick pointed out that other jurisdictions in the Valley and our neighbors in California already have or are about to have similar legislation in effect.

“In Los Angeles County, they were anywhere from over 45,000 (unhoused individuals) to 75,000 because they didn’t know how to impose the problem that we have. We want you to have them. We want them “If we do it, we’re going to wait for every piece of infrastructure to be built, we’ll be waiting a long time,” Kirkpatrick said. “We have to start somewhere.”

The new ordinance will come into effect on February 1, 2025.