Bellevue, WA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

110 defines unlawful public camping as using nonresidential public property, including streets, sidewalks, city parks, and other open areas where the city or another government agency holds a property interest such as an easement, as a place of dwelling, lodging, residence, or living accommodation between sunset and sunrise. The prohibition does not reach city-owned housing such as apartments or other fixed residential quarters. Officers look for indicia of camping including tents or other temporary shelters, bedding, stored personal belongings, and cooking equipment or its storage.

110(D). The ordinance builds in a constitutional safety valve modeled on the Martin v. Boise line of cases: a person is not guilty if, at the time they were on public property, there was no available overnight shelter, meaning a public or private shelter with open overnight space serving people experiencing homelessness at no charge. That defense narrows sharply, though, if the person turned down or was excluded from an available shelter bed because of their own voluntary conduct: intoxication, drug use, unruly or assaultive behavior, or violating shelter rules still counts the space as available for purposes of the law.

120, separately makes it a misdemeanor to discharge sewage, cesspool effluent, or human waste into a public street, city park, or the storm and surface water system, which frequently accompanies encampment cleanup and sanitation enforcement in practice.