The Las Vegas City Council voted Wednesday in favor reinforce the camping ban that affects homeless people who sleep and gather in public spaces.

Council members voted 6-0 to amend the ordinance without public discussion. The development came after the Clark County Commission on Tuesday adopted its own new camping ban, which will go into effect on February 1.

The city law, which went into effect in 2020, applies to public streets, alleys, sidewalks, trails and washes.

The amended ordinance, which goes into effect Sunday, adds potential penalties, such as mandatory jail sentences, and removes a provision that said the law could not be enforced if public shelter space were not available.

Before people are given a written warning or fine, they must first be informed that they are violating the ordinance and informed about social services, according to the ordinance.

Anyone convicted of a misdemeanor more than twice in a year is subject to a jail sentence of up to 10 days.

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

Adjusting to the ruling of the Supreme Court

The city said the amendment came in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this year.

Las Vegas and the city of Henderson, which also has a camping ban, had signed a “friend of the court” brief in support of Grants Pass, Oregon, where the Supreme Court case originated, and where they were in doubt the fines for people who slept outdoors. .

The justices overturned a 2018 lower court decision that found camping bans amounted to cruel and unusual punishment when shelter space was lacking.

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

“The ordinance is intended to provide homeless individuals with the option to obtain assistance so that they no longer have to live in unsafe and unhealthy conditions on the streets,” the city said.

Opponents have argued that such bans criminalize homelessness.

“This is not simply an ordinance to help clear sidewalks or guide unhoused people to services,” Elizabeth Becker of the Nevada Progressive Leadership Alliance responded at a previous City Council meeting.

Becker said the bans trap homeless people in the legal system “simply for existing in public spaces.”

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

While the high court declared that the bans do not violate the Eighth Amendment, it said, it did not “declare such ordinances to be fully permissible or constitutionally valid.”

He added: “Law enforcement officers will be tasked with enforcing the ordinance on a case-by-case basis, which will lead to confusion and inconsistency.”

Clark County’s ban and the city’s amendment came after the county in September released results from a day-long census that found a 20 percent year-over-year increase in the sheltered homeless population and unprotected 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 Continuing Care of the Homeless census.

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