Jackson, MS Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Sit-Lie Rules (2026)

Section 110-29(d) states plainly: it shall be unlawful for any person to interfere with ingress and egress. The definition in § 110-29(a) does the real work: interference, or interfere, with ingress and egress means standing, sitting, lying down, using personal property, or performing any other activity on public property or in a park where the activity materially interferes with ingress into and egress from buildings, driveways, streets, alleys or other real property that has a limited number of entrances or exits, regardless of who owns it, whether the city, a private owner, or another public entity; reasonably appears, given all the circumstances, to have the purpose of blocking ingress and egress; and occurs without the express written permission of the property owner.

Where written permission has been granted, the person relying on it must have it in hand at the time. This is Jackson's functional sit-lie rule: unlike a blanket sidewalk-sitting ban, it only reaches conduct that actually or purposefully blocks access to a limited-entrance property, and it is enforced through the same graduated warning system that governs the rest of § 110-29. Under subsection (e), nobody can be arrested for interfering with ingress and egress until Jackson police first issue an oral or written warning to stop; only noncompliance with that warning authorizes an arrest.

The interference prohibition, like the camping and storage prohibitions in the same section, does not apply to city, state or county officials, employees, contractors or subcontractors acting in their official capacity, and it is set aside during a permitted outdoor event on the permitted site unless the event permit specifically prohibits the activity.