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

Section 11-1-40, enacted November 18, 2024, prohibits camping in or on any public property in Goodyear unless the site is expressly designated as a permitted camp site or the City otherwise expressly authorizes it. 'Camp' is defined broadly to include sleeping in a tent, vehicle or other structure, laying down bedding to sleep, storing personal belongings, building a fire outside a City-provided fire pit, cooking outside a City-provided pit, or digging or earth-breaking, when the circumstances show the person is using the area for living accommodations.

'Public property' covers playgrounds, splash pads, restrooms, streets, sidewalks, rights-of-way, bike paths, transit stops, preserves, open space, mountain parks, washes and City parking lots. No one may camp in any City-owned building, facility, parking lot or structure, and camping is barred within 500 feet of any school, child care facility, shelter or park boundary regardless of whether it is otherwise permitted property. The Parks and Recreation Director may issue permits or reservations letting youth organizations, schools or similar groups camp or park vehicles overnight in a park or preserve, and camping already authorized by the City through a special event permit or other City permission is excluded from the ban entirely.

A separate carve-out lets people camp for 12 hours or less in a public stadium's parking lot on the day of a sporting event there. Before anyone can be cited, the City must first have issued them a warning within the previous 12 months, or the property itself must be conspicuously posted with a warning of the camping ban; a first-time, un-warned encounter cannot result in a citation. § 13-717 instead of, or along with, any sentence.