Brookhaven, GA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Sit-Lie Rules (2026)

The sit-lie rule is subsection (c) of Sec. 18-36, Urban camping and improper use of public places. It makes it unlawful to camp, sleep, store personal property, or to sit or lie down on any street or sidewalk or any public or railroad right-of-way. Subsection (c) itself states no time threshold for sitting or lying down; the one-hour measures in subsection (a) attach to the definitions of camp and storing personal property. Subsection (d) adds a second location test: it is unlawful to camp, sleep, store personal property, or sit or lie down on any public property or private property so as to interfere with the ingress or egress from buildings.

Subsection (e) sets the warning requirement. No person may be arrested for violating the section by simply sleeping, sitting or lying down in a prohibited location or for a prohibited period of time without having first received an oral or written warning to cease such unlawful conduct. An officer therefore starts with a request to move, and an arrest for that conduct follows only after the warning is ignored.

Subsection (f) carves out ordinary uses of public space. The section does not apply to persons sitting or lying down as a result of a medical emergency, persons sitting in wheelchairs while using sidewalks, persons sitting down while attending parades or patronizing outdoor cafes, persons sitting on chairs or benches supplied by a public agency or abutting private property owner, persons sitting on seats in bus zones occupied by people waiting for the bus, and persons waiting in an orderly line outside a box office. It also protects those attending performances, festivals, concerts, fireworks or other special events in a park or on a street or sidewalk closed by permit, and children under the age of six sleeping while accompanied by a supervising adult or sitting or lying in a stroller or baby carriage.

A separate rule in Sec. 18-2(b)(10) treats standing or remaining on a street, sidewalk, overpass or public way so as to impede the flow of vehicular or pedestrian traffic as disorderly conduct after a police officer requests or orders the person to clear it.