Mountain View, CA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

City Code Sec. " The provision traces to Section 472 of the 1938 Code and remains in force in Chapter 21 (Miscellaneous Offenses and Smoking Regulations), Article I. It is a permission-based rule: camping is not banned outright everywhere, but it is unlawful anywhere covered by the section, vacant lots, hay/straw storage areas, and buildings, unless the property owner or occupant consents first. The section does not itself set out a sanitation, notice, or storage-of-belongings protocol for clearing an encampment; it operates as a straightforward trespass-style camping prohibition enforced through the citywide misdemeanor/infraction structure in Sec.

7 rather than through a dedicated encampment-cleanup ordinance. Because the rule predates the modern homelessness-encampment framework, the city's enforcement in practice runs alongside its Safe Parking program (Sec. ), which offers a permitted overnight vehicle-parking alternative for people without housing, and any outreach or storage protocols the police or public works departments use for encampment sites are administered outside this specific code section.