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

Section 25, titled Sidewalks and Crosswalks, sits in Chapter 12 of the 2008 Revised Ordinances. Subsection (a) bars driving any motor vehicle, motorcycle or snowmobile onto a sidewalk except to cross it at right angles into an adjoining driveway. Subsection (b), the operative sit-lie-adjacent rule, makes it unlawful for any person to stand or place any obstruction of any kind on a street, sidewalk, or crosswalk in a manner that blocks free passage for travelers. 00 under Chapter 15's schedule of fines. Because that penalty is a specific one listed in the schedule, it is handled through non-criminal disposition under General Laws chapter 40, Section 21D rather than a criminal complaint, and police officers are also authorized enforcing persons under Chapter 15's general non-criminal disposition clause.

Section 25 does not use the words sit or lie, and it does not single out homelessness or encampments; it is a general obstruction rule that reaches anyone, including a vendor's display, construction debris, or a person's belongings, that blocks a traveler's path on a public sidewalk. Aggressive panhandling directed at pedestrians on the same sidewalks is regulated separately under Chapter 9, Section 16, with its own findings, definitions and penalty structure.