Brookhaven, GA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Sec. 18-36 is the City of Brookhaven's urban camping ordinance, titled Urban camping and improper use of public places. It defines the conduct before it bans it. Camp means residing in or using a location for private living accommodations, such as erecting tents or other temporary structures or objects providing shelter, sleeping in a single place for more than one hour at a time, cooking or preparing meals, or other similar activities. Storing personal property means leaving personal effects such as clothing, bedrolls, cookware, sleeping bags, luggage, knapsacks or backpacks unattended for more than one hour.

Subsection (b) is the park rule: it is unlawful to camp or to store personal property in any park or greenspace owned or maintained by the city. Subsection (c) extends camping, sleeping and storing personal property to any street, sidewalk or public or railroad right-of-way. Subsection (d) reaches any public or private property when the conduct interferes with ingress or egress from buildings.

Subsection (e) is the enforcement safeguard. No person may be arrested for violating the section by simply sleeping, sitting or lying down in a prohibited location or for a prohibited period of time without first receiving an oral or written warning to cease. The section prescribes no posting period, storage arrangement or cleanup schedule for belongings left behind, so that warning is the only procedural step the text sets.

Subsection (f) lists exceptions that matter for people without housing. It does not apply to persons sitting or lying down in an orderly line awaiting entry to any building, including shelters, or awaiting social services such as provision of meals, or to children under the age of six sleeping anywhere while accompanied by a supervising adult. The Brookhaven Police Department enforces the section, and Sec. 18-16 sends its penalty to the general provision in Sec. 1-11.