Sandy Springs, GA Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Sit-Lie Rules (2026)

Section 38-60(c) prohibits sitting or lying down, along with camping, sleeping, and storing personal property, on any "public street," a term the ordinance defines broadly to cover public streets and highways, public sidewalks, public benches, public parking lots, and medians. Subsection (d) applies the identical prohibition to any other public property, but only where the conduct interferes with ingress or egress from a building, protecting entrances rather than banning sitting outright on all public land. As with the rest of § 38-60, subsection (e) bars an arrest until the person has first received an oral or written warning to stop, and only continued noncompliance exposes them to arrest for urban camping.

Subsection (f)'s ten carve-outs directly qualify the sit-lie ban: people in wheelchairs may sit on sidewalks, people may sit while waiting in an orderly line for a box office, a shelter, or free meals, riders may sit in a bus zone waiting for a bus, and anyone experiencing a medical emergency may sit or lie down without violating the section. Enforcement is by the Sandy Springs Police Department, and because subsections (c) and (d) carry no fine of their own, a conviction falls under the citywide general penalty of § 1-10(c): up to a $1,000 fine, six months of imprisonment, or 30 days of confinement at labor, with continuing conduct treated as a new offense each day under § 1-10(d)(1). The section dates to Ord. No. 2005-12-09, adopted December 1, 2005.