Santa Fe, NM Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

12 of the Santa Fe City Code of 1987, the camping ordinance sits inside Chapter 23's parks and public places article, alongside the city's rules against fires, obstructions, and unauthorized uses of park land. Paragraph A targets city parks specifically: nobody may camp or lodge there without first obtaining a permit from the city. Paragraph B extends the prohibition to all other city property, closing the loophole that might otherwise let someone move from a park bench to a parking lot or plaza sidewalk overnight.

Paragraph C defines camping to include sleeping in a motor vehicle or trailer, so a person parked overnight in a van on a city street or lot falls within the ban even without a tent or bedroll. 1: a fine of up to five hundred dollars, up to ninety days in the county jail, or both, with each day the violation continues counted as a separate offense. 9, administered by the department the city manager designates, is the same general channel used to seek the paragraph A camping permit.

11's list of prohibited park activities, reflecting a chapter-wide approach to controlling overnight and unsupervised uses of city recreation land rather than a single freestanding encampment statute.