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

Everett has no ordinance titled sit-lie. The closest rule is Section 13-16, No Loitering Public Property, School Safety Zones, in Chapter 13 (Offenses and Miscellaneous Provisions) of the Revised Ordinances enacted by the Everett City Council in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It defines Loitering as remaining idle in essentially one location, including spending time idly, to linger, to stay, to delay and to stand around, and it adds the colloquial expression hanging around. Public Place covers any place the general public has access to, including the front or surrounding area of any store, shop, restaurant, tavern or other place of business, all public parking facilities, public grounds, areas or parks.

Under subsection (b), it is unlawful to loiter, alone or in concert with others, in a way that obstructs any public street, public highway, public sidewalk or other Public Place or building by hindering, disrupting or impeding the free and uninterrupted passage of vehicles, traffic or pedestrians. Subsection (b)(2) reaches acts that interfere with the use of property or any business lawfully conducted on a public street or sidewalk, and anything that blocks ingress and egress.

The enforcement step is an order. A police officer or any law enforcement officer shall order the person to stop and to move on or disperse, and each person who fails or refuses to obey commits the violation. The text applies to any person and does not mention homelessness. The conduct it punishes is obstruction and delay, tested by the effect on passage and access.

A second layer covers schools. Subsection (c) creates School Safety Zones that include the sidewalks around Everett High School, the Albert N. Parlin School, the Lafayette, Madeline English, Sumner Whittier, Webster and George Keverian Schools and Pope John XXIII High School. Anyone without right or without a legitimate school purpose who remains in or loiters within a zone between 7:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. Monday through Friday, after being forbidden by a posted notice or by the Chief of Police or an officer, is subject to arrest in accordance with Chapter 272, § 59 of the General Laws of Massachusetts and a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00). The separate sidewalk rule in Section 17-18 bars standing in a way that obstructs free passage.