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Proposed constitutional amendment would bar municipal bans on sleeping on privately held land; supporters call it protection from criminalizing homelessness, n
Summary
CACR 16 would prohibit laws that unduly restrict a person who has a legal right to occupy property from sleeping there (with public‑health and commercial exceptions). Proponents framed it as protecting people from criminalization; opponents warned of zoning, domestic‑relations and unintended consequences that require careful drafting.
Representative Ellen Reed presented CACR 16, a proposed constitutional amendment intended to prevent municipalities from enacting ordinances that criminalize or unduly restrict a person’s ability to sleep on property they legally own or are legally entitled to occupy. Reed said the text is designed to protect basic biological needs from criminalization while preserving a municipality’s ability to regulate septic, water and public‑health concerns and to limit commercial activities such as campgrounds.
Supporters told the committee the amendment would stop a patchwork of ordinances that chase people from town to town and penalize sleeping, often creating criminal records that worsen homelessness. Representative Heath Howard said criminalizing sleeping does not solve homelessness and leaves people worse off with records that hinder housing and employment.
Opponents — including representatives of the home‑building industry and municipal interests — cautioned that an overly broad constitutional right could undermine local zoning and the ADU framework the Legislature recently enacted. Witnesses raised specific concerns about edge cases: whether a spouse being restrained from approaching a property could nonetheless camp on the yard during a domestic‑relations dispute, how ‘temporary repose’ would be measured, and how to distinguish commercial campground operations from private, temporary sleeping.
Representative Reed said the amendment is narrowly intended to protect private property rights and to prohibit criminalization of sleep where there is lawful access and no public‑health impact; she also proposed a voter-education wording amendment to clarify the measure’s limits. The committee heard both policy and practical arguments and indicated interest in subcommittee work and clearer drafting.
