Owensboro, KY Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Sec. 19-6 lists activities restricted for anyone other than law enforcement personnel, authorized city personnel, agents or contractors while in a park, and item (9) bars setting up tents, parking recreational vehicles, or assembling any other shelters for the purpose of camping overnight in a park. Park is defined broadly in Sec. 19-2 to include all parks, pedestrian or bicycle trails, playgrounds, ball fields, swimming pools, tennis courts, the recreation center, the golf course and shelters, plus access roads, parking lots and sidewalks located on them, so the camping ban reaches essentially all city-owned recreational property, not just traditional parkland.

The prohibition sits alongside related restrictions in the same section against erecting other structures, littering, and possessing alcohol. Beyond the fine, the parks and recreation director or public works director can temporarily suspend a person's privilege to use city parks for up to 96 hours based on observed or reliable evidence of a violation, Sec. 19-9(a)(2), and the city manager can suspend or revoke privileges longer after written notice and a show-cause opportunity, Sec. 19-9(b). A person who refuses to leave after a suspension is deemed to have committed a trespass and can be forcibly removed and arrested, and any suspension or revocation decision can be appealed in writing to the board of commissioners within 10 days, Sec. 19-9(c).