The Las Vegas City Council voted Wednesday to strengthen a camping ban this affects homeless people who sleep and congregate in public spaces.

Council members voted 6-0 to amend the ordinance without public debate. Development occurred after the Clark County Commission Tuesday has passed its own new camping ban, which goes into effect on February 1.

The city’s law, which took effect in 2020, applies to streets, alleys, sidewalks, trails and public wash houses.

The amended order – which takes effect Sunday – adds possible sanctions, such as mandatory prison sentences, and removes a provision that said the law could not be enforced if there was no space for public accommodation available.

Before people are punished with a written warning or fine, they must first be informed that they are violating the order and be notified of social services, according to the order.

Anyone found guilty of a minor offense more than twice in a year is subject to imprisonment of up to 10 days.

As an alternative to prison time, “a court may order a defendant to complete a rehabilitation program, specialized court program, or other treatment program designed to assist the homeless,” according to the city ordinance.

Adapting to the Supreme Court’s decision

The city said the amendment followed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued this year.

Las Vegas and the city of Henderson, which also has a camping ban, had signed a “friend of the court” brief supporting Grants Pass, Oregon, where the Supreme Court case originated and fines for people found sleeping outside were in question. .

The justices overturned a 2018 lower court ruling that found camping bans constituted cruel and unusual punishment when shelter space was in short supply.

Las Vegas previously said the amended ordinance “largely mirrors” the law already in place and that its outreach to the homeless community providing social services has not changed.

“The ordinance is intended to give unhoused people the choice to obtain assistance so that they are no longer forced to live in unsafe and unsanitary conditions on the streets,” the city said.

Opponents have argued that such bans criminalize homelessness.

“This is not just an ordinance to clean sidewalks or guide unhoused people to services,” Elizabeth Becker of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada countered at a previous city council meeting. .

Becker said the bans trap homeless people in the legal system “simply because they exist in public spaces.”

Attorney Tia Smith of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada had warned the city that the ordinance opened Las Vegas to possible litigation.

Although the top court said the bans did not violate the Eighth Amendment, it said it did not “declare such orders to be entirely authorized or constitutionally valid.”

She added: “Law enforcement officers will be tasked with enforcing the order on a case-by-case basis, resulting in confusion and inconsistency. »

Clark County’s ban and city amendment came after the county in September released the results of a one-day census that found a 20 percent year-over-year increase in the unsheltered and homeless population in Southern Nevada, the highest number since 2014.

In January, volunteers counted 4,202 people living on the streets, a 7 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Southern Nevada Homeless Continuum of Care census.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at [email protected] Follow on @rickytwrites.