Palmdale, CA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

PMC Chapter 9.46 defines "camping" broadly to include using a public street, publicly owned property, park, or other prohibited public place for living, lodging, or sleeping, shown by staying for prolonged or repeated periods with belongings such as sleeping bags, luggage, or cookware, cooking or eating meals there, or lodging in a parked vehicle. "Prohibited public places" under § 9.46.010(A)(3) reach sidewalks, rights-of-way, publicly owned property, public parking lots whether publicly or privately owned, public landscaped areas, private property that is readily accessible to the general public, vacant lots, and drainage culverts and basins.

Section 9.46.010(B)(1) bars camping, lodging, or sleeping in any of those places "when the number of available beds in shelters is greater than the number of homeless individuals in the City," while still allowing camping at a permitted public campground. A second rule targets vehicle habitation: living out of a vehicle on a street or public property is barred between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., at any time within 500 feet of a residence, and at any time within one block of a park, school, preschool, or daycare. Before any citation issues, § 9.46.020(C) requires the Enforcement Officer to affirmatively determine, based on what's known at the time, that an available shelter bed actually exists and that seeking it was practicable for that person.