Lewis County, WA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

010(3) as land Lewis County owns, land over which the county holds a road right-of-way or easement, and the 30-foot strip running parallel to a roadway from its edge. 020 makes it unlawful to camp, sleep, place camping equipment, or otherwise use items for sleeping or habitation on controlled property outside areas specifically designated and posted for that purpose; habitation can be shown by cooking, sleeping, or sanitation items, or by an accumulation of personal property. Before citing or arresting anyone, a deputy must first orally warn the person that they are in violation, tell them a shelter bed is available in the county, and tell them to leave; if the person leaves within a reasonable time and does not return, no citation or arrest follows.

030 imposes a parallel unauthorized-parking rule, with exceptions for inoperable vehicles removed within 24 hours, vehicles parked at least 10 feet from the roadway edge and outside the right-of-way that belong to the parker, and vehicles parked there with the property owner's visible written permission. 040 ties enforcement to shelter capacity: the health and social services director must notify the sheriff's office when the Salvation Army Centralia shelter or any other publicly funded county shelter drops to five beds or fewer, and enforcement is suspended entirely once all such shelters are full until a bed opens up; lack of an available bed is also a defense to prosecution.