Longview, TX Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

City Code Sec. 58-78 makes it unlawful for any person, family, or group to camp within Longview's corporate limits, defining camping as living outside a permanent structure in a tent or other temporary lodging. The only exceptions: camping on property you own, while living in a permanent structure there, where the tent isn't visible from the roadway and it's for recreational use only, or camping with specific permission from the city or under another ordinance or statute. A companion section, Sec. 58-77, separately bans sleeping or lounging on public streets, sidewalks, or other public property that impedes public use. Neither section requires proof of a culpable mental state to prosecute.