Residents and elected officials told the Butte-Silver Bow Judiciary Committee on July 23 that vehicle and trailer camping in neighborhoods and parks has created sanitation, safety and fire-response concerns, and commissioners agreed to continue the conversation and hold drafting of an ordinance for two weeks.

Trudy Healy (Commissioner, District 8) introduced the item as a starting point for discussion and said two neighborhood residents had asked her to raise concerns about people camping in vehicles. James Madison, a resident of 116 West Silver Street, told the committee he had witnessed people living in vehicles at Emma Park, saying they left trash and human waste and that his neighborhood had experienced repeated disturbances overnight. "Last summer, we probably had 5 people camped out at Emma Park, living in their vehicles. So no sanitary conditions, garbage, trash," Madison said.

County Attorney Matt Enruth described the issue as complicated and warned that simply designating a single parcel for camping could move rather than solve problems. He said practical questions include which department would handle cleanup of human waste and needles, how to distinguish criminal activity from homelessness, and how to craft exceptions for private-property situations. "We're talking about human feces, needles, all kinds of stuff like that," Enruth said, adding that ordinances will need to consider mental-health and substance-use dimensions as well as enforcement.

Commissioner Callahan said enforcement of existing ordinances has been uneven and urged the committee to begin with targeted prohibitions — parks, school routes, church property and in front of private homes where nonresidents camp — before deciding where camping might be allowed. Commissioner Healy and others referenced actions in other Montana cities such as Bozeman and Missoula as examples to study, noting both efforts and mistakes.

The committee voted to hold the communication in advance for two weeks to allow further study and drafting and to circulate materials to absent commissioners. The motion passed 4 to 0. No ordinance text was adopted at the meeting; staff and the county attorney will return with draft language and options for enforcement and exemptions.