NC lawmakers debate making homeless camps illegal, with this exception

Anna Roman, The Charlotte Observer on May 7, 2025

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A proposed change to state law would make it illegal for people experiencing homelessness to sleep or camp on public property.

Local governments that allow outdoor encampments could be sued unless they create a designated sleeping and encampment area that meets certain criteria.

Critics say the bill would criminalize homelessness, but Rep. Brian Biggs, one of the primary sponsors of House Bill 781, said the legislation provides guidelines for local governments.

“This gives the local government a choice, a vehicle in order to deal with the homeless population in a sanitary and safe way,” Biggs, a Randolph County Republican, said during a committee meeting Tuesday afternoon.

“Right now, police officers and municipalities, they’re taking things into their own hands, and they really don’t have the guidance,” he said.

A 2024 statewide count found 11,626 people experiencing homelessness in North Carolina, with 4,523 of them unsheltered meaning they were not in emergency or transitional housing.

“If we’re looking at fiscal impact and being fiscally conservative, it would [be much more] prudent of us to invest in housing, affordable housing, than criminalizing and putting more people, homeless people, in jails,” said Rep. Tracy Clark, a Greensboro Democrat who opposes the bill.

The bill cleared two House committees Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.

Conservative think tank

Chris Sharp, a visiting fellow for the conservative, Texas-based Cicero Institute, spoke in favor of the bill during an earlier committee meeting.

“This bill allows for local governments to establish sanctioned camping, camping areas that provide basic sanitation, access to mental health and substance abuse treatment, along with protection from gangs and drug dealers, which often prey on these vulnerable individuals,” said Sharp, as first reported by NC Newsline. “HB 781 also provides for protection of individual property and small business property rights.”

Several states, including Florida, Texas and Kentucky, have passed similar bills and have looked to the think tank for guidance, NPR reported.

“The homelessness crisis has become a racket,” according to the Cicero Institute’s website. “Government-funded NGOs and activist groups exploit taxpayer dollars to push failed, ideological policies that trap people in addiction and despair. It’s time to end the corruption, hold these groups accountable, and demand real outcomes: safety, dignity and self-sufficiency.”

Housing-first model

The housing-first model has become the go-to method of helping people get out of homelessness. The idea is to provide housing without strings attached and then provide services.

The city of Raleigh launched a program last year that gives participants at least $1,450 a month to spend however they like over two years. The 45 recipients were selected from a homeless encampment on city land near Dorothea Dix Park.

The city estimates it costs $96,000 a year in emergency services, law enforcement and health care for a homeless person living outside. Putting someone in a home and making services available costs $20,000, saving $76,000, The News & Observer previously reported.

“We always say it is a solution for heartstrings and pursestrings,” Emilia Sutton, the city’s Housing and Neighborhoods director, said in an previous interview.

“It works for addressing the tragedy of homelessness and what people endure going through that, and it is efficient and effective and it saves taxpayer dollars.”

Since 2012, the housing-first model has been the approach of the US Department of Veteran Affairs, and more than 133,000 veterans have been housed in the last three years, said Benjamin Horton, director of outreach for Veteran Services of the Carolinas.

“Forced sanctioned encampments of homelessness will add more onus on law enforcement officers,” he said. “It’ll make them more mental health providers. ... This bill will drive unsheltered veterans further from the resources needed and further away from sustainable recovery.”

Designated camps

The bill outlines what a local government would have to provide in the new designated camps, including restrooms, running water, and coordination with the local health department for mental health and substance use treatment.

Sites couldn’t border neighborhoods or property zoned residential, and would have to be certified for by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Part of the certification would provide documentation that there are not enough homeless shelter beds for the homeless population.

The campus could stay open for one year with an option for an additional year.

There is no money included in the bill. Instead, the cost would be offset by local governments no longer having to remove and clean up illegal camps, Biggs said.

The bill does not apply to people sleeping in a vehicle or camping for recreation on designated area.