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

1, enacted to keep tents and other temporary shelters off city property. 'Designated public property' is defined in Subsection (a)(1) to include parks, grounds, buildings, and rights-of-way under the park and recreation board, Dallas City Hall and its plaza, the Dallas convention center and grounds, the J. Erik Jonsson central library and grounds, and any vacant or unimproved lot the city owns, leases, or controls. A 'temporary shelter' is any tent or other portable or impermanent structure, manufactured or makeshift, that shelters or partially shelters a person from the elements.

Subsection (b) makes it an offense to place, erect, or maintain such a shelter on that property, but Subsection (c) carves out shelters expressly authorized by a city council ordinance or resolution, a Chapter 42A special event permit, a city contract, or, for park board property, a written authorization from the park and recreation director. Before any enforcement, Subsection (e) requires a police officer to ask the person's reason for the shelter and give an oral or written warning requesting removal of the shelter and all personal belongings within one hour; only if the person ignores that warning and no defense applies may the officer issue a citation or make an arrest.

Each day or part of a day the violation continues is a separate offense under Subsection (d), punishable by a fine of up to $500. A related provision, Section 31-13, separately makes it an offense to sleep or doze in a street, alley, park, or other public place, or in a vacant lot adjoining a public street, unless the person owns the lot or has the owner's consent.