Chicopee, MA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Sit-Lie Rules (2026)

Chapter 278 of the Code of the City of Chicopee, Offenses Against Public Peace, was adopted by the Chicopee City Council on 6-3-2025 as Ord. No. 25-25. Section 278-3(A) is the provision that reaches sitting and standing on public ways in the City of Chicopee. It covers four kinds of public way: a highway, an alley, a sidewalk and a crosswalk. The prohibited conduct is to loiter, or to stand or sit, in or upon one of those places in one of two ways. The first is so as to hinder or obstruct the free passage of persons or vehicles passing along. The second is so as in any manner to annoy or molest persons passing along the same.

The text sets no minimum time, no minimum distance from a building and no separate rule for lying down, sleeping or bedding. It does not mention homelessness or any group of people; the same words apply to every person on a Chicopee sidewalk. The test the code prints is the effect on people using the way: obstruction of passage, or annoyance or molestation of those passing.

Section 278-3(B) applies the same wording to the entrance of any church, hall, theater or place of public assemblage, and § 278-5 separately bars blocking a public place or a business entrance with the intent to delay or hinder others. Enforcement sits in § 278-6. The Superintendent of Public Works, the Chicopee Police Department, the Chicopee Building Department, the Chicopee Health Department, the Chicopee Fire Department, or any of their designees enforce Chapter 278 and have the authority to issue citations. Because five departments hold citation authority, a violation can be written by an inspector as well as by a police officer.