A Los Angeles City Council committee is expected to discuss a proposal to expand the city’s anti-camping law, known as Municipal Code 41.18, this week. The five-member Public Safety Committee will review a motion introduced by Councilwoman Traci Park, seconded by committee chair Councilman John Lee and Councilwoman Imelda Padilla.
Municipal Code 41.18 prohibits individuals from sitting, lying, sleeping, or storing personal property in designated public areas. The city has long enforced anti-loitering laws, and in 2021, the City Council expanded Section 41.18 to ban encampments within 500 feet of specific sensitive locations, including public schools and libraries. The list of these locations was later expanded to include day care centers, parks, underpasses, and areas near the Los Angeles River.
Currently, council members can establish these anti-camping zones through a resolution, which requires majority approval from the full council. Councilwoman Park’s new proposal would change this, allowing individual council members to establish anti-camping zones without requiring a full council resolution. Her motion also seeks to add U.S. post offices, fire stations, and police stations to the list of sensitive locations where encampments would be prohibited.
Furthermore, the proposal calls for establishing anti-camping zones within 500 feet of “fire-hazard severity zones,” environmentally sensitive areas, and critical infrastructure. The city defends the law as a public-safety measure.
Councilwoman Park argued that Los Angeles’ regulatory framework for encampments predates the U.S. Supreme Court’s *City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson* ruling last year, which affirmed cities' ability to enforce laws regulating homeless encampments. Park also stated that updating Section 41.18 would align with Governor Gavin Newsom’s July 2025 directive for state agencies to address encampments on state property, and his call for local governments to follow suit. Governor Newsom announced a model ordinance in May 2025 that cities could use as a template for homeless encampment regulations. Park’s motion states that it is time for Los Angeles to update its own rules and implement additional “common sense policies to protect health and safety on its sidewalks and its public spaces.”
However, housing and homelessness advocates have challenged the law’s implementation, arguing that its enforcement forcibly displaces unhoused people, moves them from place to place, and disconnects them from essential medical care, outreach, and support.
The law has also become an issue in the upcoming mayoral race. Mayor Karen Bass, who is seeking a second term, supports Section 41.18. Her campaign has criticized challenger City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, who represents the 4th District, for voting against other council members’ resolutions to establish additional anti-camping zones in their districts. Raman has stated that Section 41.18 should not be expanded without parallel investments in housing, shelter, and outreach, arguing that the city lacks the capacity for effective enforcement. She has also said that, if elected mayor, she would not interfere with council members’ use of the existing law.
Other council members have also expressed that Section 41.18 may not be the most effective tool for addressing homeless encampments. Last September, the City Council approved a motion by Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez to rescind 12 anti-camping zones in his 13th District, which covers parts of Silver Lake, Echo Park, and other central Los Angeles neighborhoods. Soto-Martinez sought to remove discretionary zones that had been established by his predecessor in 2021, arguing that their presence made it more difficult for his office to connect unhoused people with necessary services.
