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

Chapter 10.34 of the Placentia Municipal Code, Camping and Storage of Personal Property, was adopted in 2006 and amended by Ordinance O-2021-09. Its stated purpose in § 10.34.010 is to keep public areas clean, sanitary and accessible and to stop the misappropriation of public areas for personal use. Section 10.34.030 makes it unlawful to camp, erect or occupy camp facilities or use camp paraphernalia in any public area within the city, and § 10.34.040 separately makes it unlawful to store personal property, including camp facilities and paraphernalia, in any public area.

The definitions in § 10.34.020 decide what counts. Camping means remaining for prolonged or repetitious periods with one's personal property, not associated with ordinary recreational use, and also doing at least one of four things: sleeping, storing personal property, making a fire outside a designated fire pit, or cooking meals. Both parts together are camping when it reasonably appears that a person is using the public area or street as a living accommodation. Public area covers all property owned, managed or maintained by the city, including any street, building, grounds, lot, park, plaza or parking lot. A tent is any tarp, cover, structure or shelter that is not open on all sides and hinders an unobstructed view behind or into it.

Section 10.34.050 carves out two exceptions. Subsection (a) exempts areas the city designates for camping or storage, which the city council can establish by resolution or ordinance. Subsection (b) says that, absent exigent circumstances relating to immediate threats to public health, safety or welfare, the chapter will not be enforced against indigent homeless persons sitting, lying or sleeping on public property when no alternative shelter is available, per Martin v. City of Boise, and only while that case is applicable law in the Ninth Circuit. Separately, § 13.48.230 bars sleeping in a motor vehicle on any street other than private residential property between 12:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., and bars dwelling in a vehicle on public property at any time, but no one is cited until an officer has given notice. The chapter as printed contains no posted-notice period, property-retrieval procedure or cleanup protocol.