Santa Barbara County, CA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Sec. the next morning on any public road, on public property, or on private property (including beaches, vacant lots, parking areas, and commercial property) without the owner's or lessee's permission. "Camp" is defined in Sec. 2 to mean pitching or occupying camp facilities such as tents, huts, or temporary shelters, or using camp paraphernalia like tarpaulins, cots, sleeping bags, hammocks, or cooking equipment not designated by the county. The stated purpose, per Sec. 1, is to keep public roads and public property clean and accessible to the public at large.

The ban carries two built-in carve-outs. First, Sec. 3(b) allows vehicles to be parked overnight for sleeping in county-owned parking lots, but only under a formal county management agreement with a contracting party that addresses liability, due process, eviction, fair-housing notice, and employee safety, and that names the specific location and number of vehicles allowed; occupants must also sign a written agreement with that contracting party. Second, Sec. 4 preserves a person's ability to pull off a public road and sleep, inside or outside their vehicle, when necessary for their own safety or someone else's, even though sleeping on a public road is otherwise banned.

On private property, the owner, lessee, or a permitted house guest is exempt, and anyone else sleeping there with the owner's permission must also have sanitary facilities on site approved by the county health officer. Enforcement runs through the county health officer, sheriff's deputies, or any authorized peace officer, including city police when the sheriff authorizes it (Sec. 5).