Clifton, NJ Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Section 351-2A(25) of Chapter 351, Parks and Playgrounds, is Clifton's tool against camping and encampments on public park land. The first clause bars setting up tents, shacks or any other temporary shelter for the purpose of overnight camping anywhere in a park, playground or recreation area covered by the chapter. The second clause closes an obvious workaround: a person cannot leave a house trailer, camp trailer, camp wagon or similar movable structure or special vehicle in a park after closing hours if it could be used for overnight shelter, even without erecting a tent.

Both prohibitions apply citywide across every park subject to Chapter 351 unless the City of Clifton has designated a specific area for that purpose, which is the only exception written into the subsection. The rule sits alongside the after-dark vehicle ban in § 351-2A(12) and the general park-conduct rules in § 351-3, giving Clifton's Police Department, which enforces the chapter under § 351-6D, several overlapping tools to clear an overnight encampment: the camping ban itself, the vehicle curfew, and the authority in § 351-6B to eject any person violating the chapter and in § 351-6C to seize a tent, shelter or trailer used in the violation.