Gilroy, CA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Gilroy City Code § 5.2(a) bars obstructing a street, sidewalk or other public right-of-way by sitting, lying, sleeping, or by storing, using, maintaining or placing personal property within five hundred feet of any park or playground, year-round, overnight, on any day, even when the facility is considered closed, whenever the circumstances show the area is being used as a sleeping or living accommodation. Section 5.2(b) extends the same prohibition to seven other public right-of-way locations: where it impedes passage under the Americans with Disabilities Act, within five hundred feet of a school or daycare, within one hundred feet of critical infrastructure such as water wells, storm drain basins, railways, bridges and under- or overpasses, within ten feet of a building entrance, exit, driveway or loading dock, within five feet of a fire hydrant or other fire department connection, in a way that interferes with a permitted activity, in a way that obstructs a street or bike lane open to vehicles, and on city creeks or creek embankments within Gilroy city limits.

"Personal property" is defined broadly in § 5.1(b) to include tents, tarpaulins, bedding, sleeping bags, hammocks, sheds, mattresses, furniture, appliances, luggage, backpacks, clothing, documents and medication, and "tent" is separately defined at § 5.1(f) as a collapsible, non-open-sided fabric or tarp shelter. Section 5.3 makes willfully resisting, delaying or obstructing a city employee enforcing the chapter, or refusing to comply after being asked, a misdemeanor; every other violation is enforceable only as an infraction under § 1.7 or by an administrative citation issued under § 6A.13. The chapter was adopted by Ordinance No. 2023-07 on June 19, 2023.