Issaquah, WA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Issaquah bans camping in one short section and defines the term in the section before it. IMC 9.26.030 says it is unlawful for any person to engage in camping in any park or playfield owned by the City, or on any sidewalk, street, alley, lane, public right-of-way, or under any bridge or viaduct, or in any other public place to which the general public has access.

The definition in IMC 9.26.010(A) is broad. Camping means using park land or other publicly owned property for living accommodation purposes, including but not limited to six listed activities: sleeping, making preparations to sleep, laying down bedding for the purpose of sleeping, storing personal belongings, erecting any tent, tarpaulin, shelter or other structure that would permit one to sleep overnight, and using a motor vehicle for the purposes of sleeping. Storing personal belongings is a stand-alone item on that list.

There is one carve-out. Under IMC 9.26.010(B), camping does not include sleeping in a public park during the daylight hours as long as no tent, tarpaulin, shelter or other structure has been erected.

The penalty section, IMC 9.26.040, classes a violation of 9.26.030 as a misdemeanor punishable in accordance with IMC 1.06.010(A). Each day during which a violation is committed, continued or permitted is a separate offense under IMC 1.06.020.

The camping sections do not print a notice period, a storage rule for belongings or a cleanup procedure. A separate provision, IMC 9.60.050, applies on public property: when a police officer has a reasonably well founded suspicion based on specific and articulable facts that a person in a public park or on other public property has engaged or is engaging in criminal activity, the officer can order the individual to leave the area, and failing to abide by the order is a misdemeanor.