Flagstaff, AZ Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Flagstaff City Code § 6-01-001-0022 defines 'camping' on city property, or undeveloped county, state or federal land inside city limits, as using the area for living accommodation purposes: sleeping or laying out bedding to sleep, storing personal belongings, building a fire other than in a City-provided fire or barbecue pit, using a tent, shelter or vehicle for sleeping, or cooking outside a City fire pit. The ordinance's Purpose clause, subsection A, states the Section is meant to protect the safety and harmonious use of City property by preventing storage of belongings and placement of living structures, and by preventing fire danger, littering and overuse of public space, while stating expressly that 'Nothing in this ordinance is meant to imply that homelessness is illegal in Flagstaff.' Short daytime activity such as napping or picnicking is carved out and does not count as camping.

Before anyone can be arrested, subsection C requires either a warning from a police officer or an authorized representative of the agency responsible for the property, or that the site already carries a conspicuously posted warning sign; a citation cannot issue on a first, unwarned contact. Subsection F makes the Arizona necessity defense in A.R.S. § 13-417 available to a person charged under this Section. City property under subsection D covers all City-owned or controlled land, improved or not, including trails, easements, sidewalks and parking lots.

A violation is a Class 3 misdemeanor, and subsection E makes each day the violation continues a separate offense, so a single unmoved campsite can generate multiple charges. Flagstaff Police and Community Development's code compliance staff enforce the Section, most visibly along the Rio de Flag corridor, the Lone Tree underpass and forested City parcels near downtown.