Baytown, TX Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Section 66-5 defines 'camp' broadly to cover storing personal belongings, building a campfire, using a tent, shelter, furniture, or vehicle for living or sleeping, cooking, or digging in a public place, and it defines 'public place' to include streets, roadways, parks, parking lots, alleyways, pedestrian ways, and the common areas of schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, and shops. Subsection (c) makes it unlawful to camp or loiter in any of those places, and subsection (d) creates a presumption of camping whenever the circumstances reasonably show someone is using a public place for living or sleeping accommodation, no matter their actual intent or how long they've been there.

The ordinance carves out one narrow affirmative defense: subsection (e) protects a person who owns the property, or who has secured a permit or the written permission of the property owner, to camp there. It also exempts camping or cooking inside a city park done in compliance with the parks and recreation rules in Chapter 70, which separately bans overnight park camping except by permit under section 70-11. Violating section 66-5 is a misdemeanor, punished under the Code's general penalty, section 1-14, which tops out at $500.00 for most offenses. The ordinance was adopted by Ordinance No. 12,006 in 2012, predating the state's 2021 statewide camping ban but reaching the same conduct citywide through Baytown's own police power.