National City, CA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Chapter 10.55, Regulations for Encampments on Public Property, was adopted by Ordinance No. 2024-2534 on September 17, 2024. Section 10.55.010 states its purpose: public property should be readily accessible to all people and businesses, camping interferes with the rights of others to use it, and the activity presents a public health and safety hazard. The chapter also protects the life, health and safety of all people, including residents of unauthorized encampments, and must be interpreted consistently with applicable state and federal law.

Section 10.55.020 defines "camp" or "camping" as placing, pitching, erecting or occupying an encampment, or using camp paraphernalia, for outdoor sheltering for living, accommodation or habitation or for remaining outdoors overnight. Camp paraphernalia includes tarps, cots, beds, sleeping bags, hammocks, bedrolls, camp stoves, cooking equipment, buckets, mattresses, couches, dressers and other furniture. Public property means all property owned by the city, including streets, alleys, parking lots, sidewalks, parks, waterways and improved or unimproved land.

Under § 10.55.040(A) it is unlawful and a public nuisance to camp, occupy camping facilities or use camp paraphernalia in an encampment on public property, or to accumulate or fail to properly dispose of waste, including hazardous waste, human waste, animal waste, garbage, debris, rubbish and used needles, unless the city manager specifically authorizes it. Subsection (B) applies that rule at all times in three places: within two blocks of a school where signs prohibiting encampments are posted and clearly visible to pedestrians; in any waterway or natural area abutting a waterway; and within any transit hub, on any trolley platform or along any trolley tracks where such signs are posted.

Section 10.55.030 separately protects waterways, defined as the Sweetwater River, Paradise Creek and drainage culverts within National City. It bars erecting an encampment or structure on a bank or in an abutting natural area, digging in the banks, driving or parking a vehicle along the banks unless permitted, and leaving waste in the waters or along the banks.

For cleanup, any activity in violation of the chapter is declared a public nuisance, and the city is authorized to abate it and remove the encampment as authorized by Chapter 10.04 of the National City Administrative Policy Manual. The Municode export prints that abatement section as 10.56.050, although its editor's note says the provisions were codified as §§ 10.55.010 through 10.55.060.