The OC Board of Supervisors will begin enforcing stricter anti-camping laws and cracking down on homeless encampments in unincorporated areas of Orange County.
The board voted 4-1 on Tuesday, Nov. 4, to adopt an ordinance that would make it a misdemeanor to sleep or camp at county-owned property, parks and flood control facilities.
Violators could face fines of up to $1,000 or six months of jail time.
“This ordinance adds one more resource to our tool belt of supports to address homelessness in Orange County,” Supervisor Katrina Foley, who proposed the policy, said in a statement. “It strengthens coordination across cities, the county, and our care teams so we can respond consistently and effectively to encampments.”
Homelessness in Orange County rose by 28% from 2022 to 2024, according to the most recent Point in Time survey.
Several Orange County cities, including Newport Beach, Irvine and Fullerton, have enacted anti-camping policies after the US Supreme Court ruled last June that local governments can cite homeless people for sleeping outside even if shelter space is not provided.
The high court’s decision “unshackled local governments’ ability to issue civil and criminal penalties for camping on public land without a permit,” Supervisor Don Wagner, who supported the measure, said in a statement. “The county of Orange can now ensure that our unincorporated communities are no longer subject to the health and safety concerns associated with these encampments.”
Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who casted the lone vote against the ordinance, said he saw it as a “departure” from a 2019 settlement that required the county to offer homeless people shelter and mental health services before enforcing anti-camping laws. The settlement led to the expansion of county-funded shelters, permanent supportive housing and other homeless services.
Sarmiento also expressed concern an increase in arrests of unhoused people would strain resources in Santa Ana, which houses the county’s mens jail.
“We don’t want to see the movement of folks who are unhoused from one part of the county to this part of the county without a plan to make sure those folks get back to their place of origin where they’re cited from,” Sarmiento said. “Then it becomes the problem of one district absorbing everybody else’s issues and concerns, and that’s patently unfair.”
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