Gloucester County, NJ Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Sit-Lie Rules (2026)

Section 2(kk) of the Gloucester County Parks Rules & Regulations, adopted by the Board of County Commissioners under the Section 1 authority covering "the parks, streams, lakes and recreational areas within the jurisdiction" of the County, tells visitors they may not "sleep or protractedly lounge on the seats, benches or other park equipment" anywhere in a Park Area. The same lettered item folds in a companion ban on "loud, boisterous, threatening, abusive, insulting or indecent language" and "any disorderly conduct or breach of the public peace," so a bench sleeper who also causes a disturbance faces the broader clause too. The rule sits inside the Section 2 chapeau, which opens "NO PERSON SHALL" and binds every visitor to conduct themselves "in a lawful and orderly manner" inside a Park Area, covering every facility the Gloucester County Parks System operates.

Enforcement runs through Section 3(e) and 3(f): Parks and Recreation Department staff or "authorized representatives or agencies" administer the Rules and Regulations, and any staff member who finds a person violating them can "request any person who acts in violation... to immediately leave Park premises," or call in local police "to enforce compliance." Refusing to move does not just risk ejection: Section 3(g) makes anyone "convicted of violating any of the provisions" subject to "fines or imprisonment or both as prescribed by law for each offense," with the County of Gloucester bringing the prosecution. Because this is a park-use rule rather than a municipal sidewalk ordinance, it only reaches County-owned Park Areas; sleeping on a municipal sidewalk or in a township park falls to that municipality's own code, not this one.