Kalamazoo, MI Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Section 33-24 folds encampment control into the general park-use article adopted in 2018. Subsection E flatly prohibits camping in any park without written permission of the City, a stricter rule than the nighttime sleeping curfew in Subsection B because it applies at any hour and to any unauthorized camp setup, not just overnight sleeping. Subsection M reinforces this by barring sleeping or lying down to rest at any time on a paved or otherwise improved surface, including stages or other elevated areas, which covers plazas, walkways, and built structures that an encampment might occupy.

Subsection L separately bars anyone from setting up a tent, awning, or similar staked structure without written City approval, directly targeting encampment structures. Enforcement runs through Subsection S: a Public Safety Officer may order anyone violating the article, or any other City ordinance, to leave a park for the rest of that day, and refusing to leave after being told to can result in a trespassing charge or arrest. Subsection F additionally bars digging or moving soil, or damaging vegetation, which covers ground disturbance from an encampment site.

The financial consequence lands in Subsection Y: when a court convicts someone of violating the section, or of otherwise damaging a park, the court must order the defendant to pay full restitution to the City for expenses the violation caused, and may, as a probation condition, bar the person from one or more specified parks for up to a year, with the ordinance directing courts to construe this provision liberally to make the City whole.