{"id":192432,"date":"2026-05-14T17:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/192432\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T17:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:10:08","slug":"league-city-passes-first-reading-of-healthy-spaces-ordinance-to-remove-homeless-camps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/192432\/","title":{"rendered":"League City passes first reading of ‘healthy spaces’ ordinance to remove homeless camps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLeague City City Council voted 7-1 at its May 12 meeting<\/a> to pass an ordinance establishing \u201chealthy spaces,\u201d which regulates camping on public and private property.<\/p>\n

The details<\/p>\n

The ordinance prohibits camping on private property without written authorization from the property owner or public places, unless they are expressly designated for that purpose, such as recreational vehicle parks or campgrounds, according to city documents.<\/p>\n

Individuals who camp must keep the written permission with them in order to produce it for a police officer if asked, according to the ordinance.<\/p>\n

Violations are classified as misdemeanors, and notably, each day a violation continues is considered a separate offense, according to city documents.<\/p>\n

Police officers must follow specific protocol before issuing a citation. If there is no imminent threat, an officer must:<\/p>\n

Provide the individual an opportunity to vacate the propertyAdvise them of alternative places where they may lawfully campProvide information about available services or shelter resourcesThose opposed<\/p>\n

Council member Tom Crews voted against the ordinance.<\/p>\n

Crews said the ordinance unfairly targeted the city\u2019s homeless <\/a>population, some of whom he said believes have mental illness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this is titled \u2018healthy spaces,\u2019 it definitely seems the ordinance is targeted at the homeless population,\u201d Crews said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

Those in favor<\/p>\n

Council member Courtney Chadwell said civil government has a responsibility to maintain order.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompassion is not the same as permissiveness, and biblically speaking there is no support for lawlessness,\u201d Chadwell said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

Why it matters<\/p>\n

The city brought up the ordinance for consideration after receiving complaints from residents about people staying around private property, including abandoned buildings, without permission, including \u201cfull-blown camps\u201d with couches and beds, Mayor Nick Long said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on it for the better part of eight months, and the problem has gotten worse,\u201d Long said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

Long said complaints about the camps of homeless people was the No. 1 thing he gets calls about from residents.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead<\/p>\n

City Council will hear the final reading of the ordinance and vote again at a future meeting, Long said.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"League City City Council voted 7-1 at its May 12 meeting to pass an ordinance establishing \u201chealthy spaces,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[11274,85638,11273,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-192432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-league-city-city-council","tag-league-city-city-government","tag-league-city-government","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}