Queen Anne's County, MD Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Sit-Lie Rules (2026)

Article I of Chapter 13 is the County's loitering law, and it is the closest thing in the code to a sidewalk obstruction rule. Article I never uses the words sit, lie, sleep or camp. It regulates loitering, which § 13-1 defines as standing around or remaining, or parking or remaining parked in a motor vehicle, at a public place or place open to the public, or collecting, congregating or gathering as a member of a group or crowd in one.

The places covered are broad. PUBLIC PLACE includes any public street, road, highway, alley, lane, sidewalk, crosswalk or other public way, along with public buildings and their grounds, public parking lots, parks, playgrounds, school buildings and grounds, and vacant lots. PLACE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC reaches privately owned places of business, private parking lots and private institutions, including a place of worship, cemetery or place of amusement, plus the elevator, lobby, halls and corridors of any apartment building, office or store.

Presence alone is not the offense. Section 13-3 prohibits loitering in a manner that does one of three things: interferes with, impedes or hinders the free passage of pedestrian or vehicular traffic; interferes with, obstructs, harasses, curses or threatens another member of the public, or does physical harm; or makes it clear by words, acts or other conduct that a breach of the peace or disorderly conduct is reasonably likely. Section 13-2 states that the article does not prohibit orderly picketing or other lawful assembly.

Police tools follow. Under § 13-4 a person loitering cannot fail to move on at the direction of a police officer if the failure to move endangers the public peace. Under § 13-5 a person at a public place cannot refuse to give a name and address at an officer's request when the circumstances would indicate to a reasonable man that public safety requires it. Section 13-6 requires a warning before any charge, and gives the officer a choice between arrest and a notice of violation that sets the hour, date and location to appear before the District Court.

Objects left on a sidewalk are covered separately in Chapter 23, Part 5: sidewalks shall not be blocked by vehicles or other obstructions or used as a depository for materials, waste receptacles or other objects, and violations are civil infractions (§§ 23-66.3 through 23-66.6).