Frederick, MD Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Section 6-21(a)(2) defines "camp" expansively: using property for living accommodation purposes such as sleeping, preparing to sleep (including laying down bedding), storing personal belongings, making fire, using tents, shelters, structures, or vehicles for sleeping, digging or earth-breaking, or cooking. The ordinance clarifies that these activities constitute camping when, given all the circumstances, the participants are in fact using the area as a living accommodation, regardless of their subjective intent or any other activity they may also be engaged in, meaning the City does not need to prove intent to establish a violation.

Section 6-21(b) then flatly prohibits camping on any public property within the City, with a single named exemption for Harry Grove Stadium. Because the definition is tied to "public property" rather than just "park," it functions as a City-wide anti-encampment rule reaching sidewalks, rights-of-way, and other municipal land, not merely designated parks; it sits in the same Article V, "Prohibited Acts," alongside the alcohol, smoking, and vehicle-use restrictions. The section does not describe a separate outreach or cleanup protocol, notice period, or property-storage procedure for encampment removal the way the post-eviction disposal rule in Sec. 10-7 does for evicted tenants' belongings; enforcement under 6-21 is criminal rather than administrative.