Fresno County's illegal camping ordinance to go into effect Friday
People who violate the ordinance could face a fine of $500 or up to six months in jail.
FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fresno County's illegal camping ordinance is set to go into effect Friday.
The new ordinance will allow the Fresno County Sheriff's office to take enforcement action for people obstructing public access, like a walkway, sidewalk or road.
Deputy County Administrative Officer Amina Flores-Becker says even with the legislation, there will not be a massive sweep of illegal encampments Friday.
"For the county of Fresno there's not going to be any change, this is not our process, we haven't established process that will be reflective in the policy, this is simply a tool in the toolbox," explained Flores-Becker.
The ordinance, introduced by Supervisor Steve Brandau, comes after the supreme court ruling allowing cities and county's to enforce bans for people sleeping in public spaces.
Brandau says the rules are for extreme circumstances.
"Its for those rare cases where somebody is really impacting somebody's life. They're beginning an encampment, they're staying in an encampment. Maybe its hindering somebody's business. Maybe it's hindering somebody at the park, and they don't feel comfortable at the park because there's an encampment," said Brandau.
The county gives people notices days in advance to vacate an area.
People at the Willow and North location tell Action News they have until September 27th to leave.
Flores-Becker adding their goal is to help the community, and there's still more work to be done before people will see a difference.
"We are also working on a policy because our ordinance is very broad. It's broad strategically because we are developing a policy that we'll present to the board to detail out the logistics of our actions when we do encampment resolution," said Flores-Becker.
Flores-Becker says that encampment resolution policy is set to come before board here sometime next month.
The city's ordinance is set to roll out next week.
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