Youngstown, OH Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Section 533.20(a)(1) bars loitering or remaining in a public place for the purpose of engaging in, or soliciting, sexual activity for hire, listing circumstances officers may weigh: a known prostitute or panderer status, repeatedly beckoning or stopping passersby, or repeatedly hailing motor vehicle operators. Subsection (a)(2) separately bars loitering in or about a school, college or university area without a reason tied to custody or responsibility for a student, or another specific legitimate reason, and without written permission from someone authorized to grant it. Subsection (b) supplies definitions: a known prostitute or panderer is someone convicted, to the arresting officer's knowledge, within the prior year of violating a city ordinance or state law on soliciting, committing or agreeing to commit prostitution; loitering means remaining idle in essentially one place, including spending time idly, loafing or walking about aimlessly; and public place, for this section, means an area, publicly owned or accessible to the public, where offenses relating to sexual conduct are known to have occurred.

Subsection (d) authorizes forfeiture of property connected to a violation under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 2981 et seq. or under the Youngstown Codified Ordinances. The section was enacted by Ordinance 09-230, passed October 7, 2009.