Spokane County may fine property tenting

Tents on private land sound like a property-rights question. In Spokane County, they’re turning into a code-enforcement question. The county prosecutor’s office told commissioners this week that it wants a cleaner way to go after encampments on vacant lots and other private parcels in unincorporated Spokane County when those sites pile up trash, human waste, blocked access, or crime risks. (everettpost.com) ### What changed this week? Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jameson Dumo briefed the Spokane County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, April 28, about a proposal to fold some private-property camping into the county’s nuisance rules. The basic move is simple — if camping on private land creates public-safety problems, the county wants authority to treat that as a nuisance and force cleanup or other abatement. (everettpost.com) ### Why does the county think it needs this? Turns out the county already overhauled its nuisance-property rules at the end of 2025, but Dumo said camping on private property “slipped through the cracks” last winter. His example was an absentee owner allowing a cluster of campers and RVs to stay on a parcel while waste piles up. The county says it did not have a strong enforcement path for that exact setup. (everettpost.com) ### Who would get fined? The target is not every person sleeping in a tent. The proposal is aimed first at the property owner, because nuisance law usually works by making the owner responsible for fixing conditions on the land. Spokane County’s current nuisance framework already uses $250 civil infractions as part of abatement, and Dumo told commissioners this camping propo(everettpost.com 1)(everettpost.com 2) ### Would backyard camping become illegal? Not in the broad, scary way people hear it. Dumo told commissioners the county is not trying to stop normal backyard camping. The proposal includes exceptions, and that’s the part that really matters. Legal RV parks and campgrounds would be exempt. On property without a habitable residence, camping could still be allowed if the owne(everettpost.com) be allowed with the owner’s or tenant’s express permission, so long as access points are not blocked and the site stays within parking limits. (everettpost.com) ### What about churches? Religious organizations get a specific carveout in the proposal. It exempts homeless people camping on property controlled by religious organizations. That matters because fights over camping rules often run straight into church-hosting programs and faith-based shelter efforts. Spokane County seems to be trying to avoid smashing those together. (eve([everettpost.com) Why does the 14-day number keep showing up? Because Spokane already has a model for this. Inside Spokane city limits, the municipal code has long barred occupying tents, huts, RVs, and other temporary shelters on private property for more than 14 days in any consecutive 12-month period, with exceptions for manufactured and mobile home parks. That rule dates to 2011. The county proposal looks a lot like an unincorporated-area version of that logic. (my.spokanecity.org) ### So is this really about homelessness? Basically, yes — but through land-use law. The county is framing the issue around nuisance conditions, not homelessness itself. That distinction matters legally and politically. Officials are talking about vacant lots, long-term encampments, waste, and emergency access. Critics will almost certainly argue that those same rules still push people around when there are not enough places to go. (everettpost.com) ### Bottom line? Spokane County has not passed a final ban on tents across private property. What happened this week is narrower and more important than that: county officials put forward a plan to make some private-land encampments enforceable as nuisances, with owners responsible when conditions turn unsafe. If commissioners move it ahead, the real fight will be over where “normal camping” ends and a punishable encampment begins. (everettpost.com)