Citrus Heights council changes course, votes for full ban on camping in vehicles

By Sara Beth Williams–
In the first meeting without former Mayor Bret Daniels, the Citrus Heights City Council on Wednesday reversed course and voted unanimously to not include an exemption for passenger vehicles from the city’s illegal camping ordinance.

Councilmember Porsche Middleton and Mayor Jayna Karpinski-Costa said preceding the vote that they trust the police department to compassionately exercise discretion when it comes to citing persons who are sleeping in vehicles, and said they were against exempting passenger vehicles within the illegal camping ordinance.

At a previous meeting on Aug. 28, the City Council initially voted 3-1 to support amendments to expand the definition of camping to include motorhomes and other vehicles, while exempting passenger vehicles that are legally registered and insured. During that meeting, then-mayor Daniels noted that some people may be sleeping in their cars out of necessity, because “that’s the last thing they own and pay for.”

Karpinski-Costa, who was appointed as mayor during the Sept. 11 meeting, said she had personally slept in her vehicle during a period of “probably two years, off-and-on” when she had a job but was in school and had to decide between paying tuition and paying rent. Although previously voting in favor of allowing persons to sleep in passenger vehicles, the mayor said the police chief had later “assured” her that if he saw a student or someone with a legitimate reason temporarily sleeping in their vehicle, their situation would be handled compassionately, and they would apparently not be targeted for enforcement action.

On Wednesday, Police Lt. Wesley Herman presented to the council the option of proceeding with approval of the amended illegal camping ordinance with new added verbiage regarding exempting passenger vehicles. He also offered the second option of further discussing more changes to the ordinance.

Herman said after examining ordinances from neighboring cities, Citrus Heights “was the exception” in that the city code did not initially contain any vehicular-camping regulations. Herman also said other jurisdictions do not exempt passenger vehicles from their illegal camping regulations and that most ordinances have made camping in any vehicle illegal. He also said motorhomes could potentially be considered “passenger vehicles,” if such an exemption was approved by the council, leading to enforcement difficulties.

“I can’t in all good conscience condone a bunch of motorhomes parked along the side of the road,” Councilmember Tim Schaefer said, although seeking to carve out a narrower exception for smaller cars.

During the prior August council meeting, the Citrus Heights Police Department first presented proposed amendments to the city’s illegal camping ordinances to the council in response to “significant blight issues” throughout the city. The original amendments aimed to expand the definitions for vehicle-based camping, and add “more stringent regulations on camping on private property,” according to a staff report.

On Wednesday, council members heard from local homeless advocates, who cited an increase in unhoused individuals needing to sleep in their vehicles because of a lack of available housing throughout the region. One resident also spoke in favor of a full ban on sleeping in vehicles, warning that allowing anyone to sleep in a passenger vehicle would result in an influx of more people coming into the city from other jurisdictions to sleep in their vehicles.

Schaefer motioned to remove the exception to passenger vehicles from being cited for illegal camping, and the motion was seconded by Vice Mayor Lopez-Taff. The motion passed 4-0, meaning a total prohibition on sleeping in any vehicle will be in place.

Want to share your thoughts on Citrus Heights’ camping ordinance? Click here to submit a letter-to-the-editor.