Solvang could join growing number of California cities outlawing encampments

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On May 27, Solvang City Council members will vote on whether the city will become the next domino to fall in line with California’s legislative push against unhoused people trying to live outside of shelters.

Lompoc introduced public and private camping bans in March. In February, members of the Fremont City Council tried to criminalize “aiding” and “abetting”  people in encampments before public outrage caused them to pull back. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan just proposed arresting unhoused people who refuse shelter three times. A report published last August by nonprofit organization Human Rights Watch decried Los Angeles for criminalizing unhoused people by arresting them and destroying their property.

At least 40 California jurisdictions enacted laws cracking down on encampments in the six months following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Grants Pass v. Johnson last June, according to NPR. The ruling reversed a lower court’s decision prohibiting jurisdictions from enacted laws that would criminalize camping in areas that didn’t have enough shelter beds for their unhoused population.

On May 12, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a model ordinance urging California cities and counties to ban encampments.

Solvang’s proposed ordinance would forbid sleeping in vehicles on public property and camping within 100 feet of Mission Drive and in the Village Mixed-Use area; essential city-owned and operated utilities; any place where camping impedes access to a property; vehicle and bicycle lanes; roundabouts; and streets closed for construction. It would also ban camping from half an hour before sunset to 6 a.m. on all other public property.

“During daylight hours, camping in public property would not be prohibited,” City Attorney Craig Steele said during a Planning Commission meeting on May 12, the same day Gov. Newsom released his model ordinance. “However, the proposed ordinance does kind of expand its prohibition on stuff that looks like getting ready to camp—digging, building a fire pit. Those kinds of things would be prohibited, even during daylight hours.”

If passed, the ordinance would cut how much notice the city must provide people to remove their personal belongings from public property from 72 hours down to 24. It would also cut the time the city needs to hold onto confiscated private property before destroying it from 90 days to 60.

The city manager would still be allowed to authorize public locations for people to sleep, but the ordinance would limit that to only being allowed during special circumstances. Steele said county counsel was generally supportive of the ordinance.

“For example, a Boy Scout campout might be allowed, and there might be an RV being used in an event,” Steele said at the meeting. “There’s a little discretion left to the city manager to waive that requirement in appropriate circumstances.”

Jesse Rabinowitz, the campaign and communications director for the National Homelessness Law Center, called Solvang’s proposed ordinance “an attempt to invisibilize homelessness.”

“That doesn’t solve the problem,” Rabinowitz told the Sun. “Clearing encampments without giving folks housing means they’re just going to sleep somewhere else. Everyone has to sleep somewhere. They’re just going to sleep in another park or on another corner.”

Rabinowitz said treating unhoused people like cans to kick down the road is not a long-term solution.

“None of the cities that have passed these anti-survival laws have ended homelessness,” Rabinowitz said. “These laws aren’t aimed at solving homelessness. These laws are aimed at scapegoating poor and homeless people for politicians’ failure to make sure everyone has housing that meets their needs.”

This article appears in May 22 – Jun 1, 2025.