Glendale staff seek council consensus to amend urban-camping code after U.S. Supreme Court ruling

Glendale city staff recommended revising the city's urban camping ordinance on Tuesday, asking the City Council at a workshop to advance language to a voting meeting following a June 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Rick Saint John, deputy city manager, told the council the city is proposing edits to Glendale City Code, chapter 25, section 25-90, including a clarified definition of "camping," a new definition of "camping paraphernalia," and changing the classification of a violation from a Class 1 to a Class 3 misdemeanor. Saint John said staff also recommend striking the ordinance's existing subsection that prevented arrests when no shelter bed space could be shown to be available and replacing it with language that allows government agencies or the Red Cross to set up temporary shelters during emergencies.

The proposal is rooted in a June 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that, according to staff, altered the legal landscape around arrests for sleeping in public space. Saint John said the city attorney's office reviewed the decision and the city's existing ordinance and forwarded the recommendations presented at the workshop.

The presentation summarized enforcement practice in recent years. Saint John said the city previously funded guaranteed shelter beds to allow officers to enforce the urban-camping ordinance; that direct payment stopped after the city entered a master services agreement with CAS (a nonprofit partner referenced by staff). He told the council he was "not absolutely certain" of the prior annual commitment but recalled the council had dedicated money (reported as about $50,000 per year; exact figure not specified in the transcript) to guarantee bed space in earlier years. Saint John said the misdemeanor repeat-offender squad has been the primary enforcement unit and that staff were told they had made nine arrests since the start of the fiscal year on July 1.

Council members asked for clarifications and raised concerns about specifics of the definitions and enforcement scope. Council Member Conchas asked about cold-weather items and whether "blankets" would be treated as paraphernalia; Conchas said, "to have that be, a class 3 misdemeanor, that seems a little bit too far." Saint John replied that sleeping in a vehicle on a public space would be enforceable under the urban-camping ordinance as drafted. Council Member Turner asked why shopping carts were not listed in the camping-paraphernalia definition; staff said there is a separate shopping-cart ordinance.

On the question of whether the proposed revision would apply to private property such as commercial parking lots, staff said the ordinance applies to public or private land but noted exceptions can exist when private owners have policies allowing overnight parking. Some council members pressed staff to consider an express exception for commercial properties that deliberately allow overnight stays, such as large retailers.

After discussion and threshold clarifications, the council gave verbal workshop consensus to move the amendment forward as drafted to the council voting meeting that evening. Staff said the item can be pulled from the voting agenda if council members later request substantive changes.

The ordinance change remains a draft; a final vote was not taken at the workshop and will be recorded if and when the item appears on the voting-meeting agenda.