Waco, TX Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

City Code section 13-373 bars camping on "designated public property," which section 13-357 defines as any sidewalk, street, highway, or right-of-way, plus parks, grounds, parking lots, buildings, or facilities owned, leased, managed, or controlled by the City of Waco. A person is "camping" if they engage in any activity from the section 13-357 definition of camp, storing personal belongings, making a campfire, using a tent, shelter, other structure or vehicle as a living accommodation, cooking, or digging or earth-breaking, and it reasonably appears from the totality of the circumstances that the person is using the property for living accommodation purposes, regardless of the person's actual intent or whatever else they are also doing there.

The ordinance carves out permitted camping or cooking in a park done in compliance with park regulations, and provides an affirmative defense to prosecution if the person secured permission to camp from the city through a contract, special events permit, ordinance, resolution, or other written authorization from the city manager's designee or the director of parks and recreation. The provision was adopted by Ordinance No. 2016-710 on October 18, 2016, as part of the same division that created Waco's solicitation, camping, and public-urination offenses.