Lompoc moves to ban homeless encampments, keeping personal belongings on public property

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Leaving personal belongings or camping on public property will soon be a no-no in Lompoc, thanks to a unanimous decision by the City Council on March 4.

A 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision paved the way for the city to enforce against those kinds of things, according to City Attorney Jeff Malawy. Last year, the court ruled that prohibiting sleeping or camping on public property didn’t violate the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment) “regardless of the status of the availability of shelter beds,” Malawy told the council on March 4. The ruling reversed lower court rulings in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which had hamstrung local municipalities when it came to homeless encampments. 

“That clarified a very uncertain area of law,” he said. “So the law is now clear that cities can prohibit homeless encampments and camping on city property.”

The ordinances introduced at the meeting will prohibit camping on any public or private property in the city with the exceptions of campgrounds and the permission of the private property owner; prohibit storing personal property in a way that obstructs doorways, sidewalks, or other areas of public property; prohibit a person from using their body to do the same; and prohibit camping, storing personal property, or taking up more space than one seated person in bus stop shelters or on bus stop benches. 

While council voted 5-0 to push the ordinances to a second reading, Councilmember Jeremy Ball said he was on the fence. 

“Am I allowed to assume that it becomes illegal to be homeless in Lompoc?” he asked. 

That depends on how people want to define homelessness, Malawy said in response. The conduct that Lompoc is making illegal is “using public property for living accommodations like camping,” he said, adding that the city does have shelters and shelter beds. 

“Obviously we have to have something to enforce,” Ball said. “I just hope we do it thoughtfully and consider the impacts all the way through.”

As part of the package, the council also passed a resolution for those measures to extend to city-owned property outside of city limits, such as the Santa Ynez Riverbed, which has historically had large homeless encampments. 

The measures are long overdue, resident Nicholas Gonzalez said during public comment. They give business owners like him a solution for instances where “the individual has defecated or urinated” in front of an entryway and refuses to move, he said. Or when somebody puts up a tarp on private property, starts collecting things, and “there’s nothing you can do about it.” 

“We have to have some teeth for the most extreme situations,” he said. “We need to have the laws on the books that allow us to fix the most egregious problems in the community.” 

Ball wondered if there was a way to track the ordinances’ effectiveness, information that could come back before the council six months in the future. Police Chief Kevin Martin said that was something the city could do and pointed out the July 2023 ordinance that prohibited overnight recreational vehicle parking and created a permitting system for residents who wanted to park their RVs near their homes. 

“We saw significant change on the streets with the RV parking ordinance,” Martin said. “It’s completely trackable and we can bring the numbers back.” 

This article appears in Mar 13-23, 2025.