What laws has Nye County passed targetting the homeless population?

A new ordinance centered on the community’s growing homeless population was adopted this week, furthering the local attempt to prevent those without homes from creating camps in the Pahrump Valley.

Pahrump Town Ordinance No. 73 was enacted under Pahrump Bill No. 2025-01, which amended Pahrump Town Code by adding Chapter 25, titled Camping, Lodging and Similar Activities.

“This is a part of our overall effort to stop homeless crime,” Nye County Commissioner Ian Bayne explained at the board’s Tuesday, May 6 meeting. “This ordinance will stop camping in public lands and public areas. This ordinance will allow us to clean up camps and tents and garbage in public areas. This ordinance will stop obstruction of sidewalks and public areas with camping gear and personal belongings and people setting up to sleep in public areas.”

Bayne said he had essentially copied the proposed ordinance from Clark County code, which was enacted following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the authority of local jurisdictions to ban camping in public spaces. Various revisions were made when the ordinance was run through the Nye County District Attorney’s Office for legal review. However, commissioners Bruce Jabbour and Debra Strickland had a few suggested changes of their own. The commission proceeded to wordsmith the document, making a series of amendments to clarify certain sections, empower only peace officers to arrest offenders and change the requirement to vacate within 24 hours so that offenders must vacate immediately.

The item did not draw much public comment but those who did speak on it Tuesday were divided in their opinions.

Area resident Beth Borysewich seemed to feel that it wouldn’t do anything to solve the problem and would only cost the county money in the end. “We need to think of a way to help these individuals and [figure out] why they are there,” Borysewich asserted. “What is it that we’re going to do, instead of just throwing them in jail and saying, let’s go ahead and pay for this person to be in our jail?”

Resident Susie Hertz, on the other hand, applauded the proposed ordinance as bringing a measure of peace of mind for residents and praised the commission for pursuing it.

“I want to thank the commission for approaching this item and putting some teeth in it,” Hertz stated. “I am a human being, I understand that there are issues and problems for people who find themselves in these circumstances. However, at the same time, part of your responsibility is to those of us who are not in these situations. We’ve asked for some support and protection from these unresolved social issues… and I really appreciate your efforts.”

As for resident Linda Clark, she appeared to feel the ordinance was a waste of time and energy. “We have churches, agencies, charities, public do-gooders, everybody who wants to help. OK, so help. But it doesn’t go away. That’s the whole problem,” Clark said. “If you think it’s going to go away, I can be here in five years and tell you that it’s probably worse.”

Commissioner John Koenig grudgingly agreed with this point of view, stating, “This has been going on forever and it’s probably going to keep going on forever, unfortunately.”

Regardless, Koenig said the ordinance is important in terms of giving local law enforcement officers something they can enforce.

“If a guy is laying on the sidewalk in front of Albertsons and you call the cops because you want the guy to get moved, [the officer] doesn’t really have anything to move him,” Koenig emphasized. “This will allow that to happen. Hopefully they’ll treat it gently and not jail everybody who is laying on a sidewalk because that’s going to end up costing us money. But we need a way to be able to legally tell the guy, you can’t lay there anymore.”

The motion to adopt the ordinance as amended then passed with all in favor.

“Hallelujah!” commission chair Ron Boskovich enthused as the item was closed.

Pahrump Town Ordinance No. 73 covers seven pages, outlining related definitions and thoroughly specifying what does and does not constitute a violation of said ordinance.

“It is unlawful for any person to camp in the following areas, except as otherwise provided by this chapter,” section 25-3 states. “Any public right-of-way; any trail, park or park facility; any public building, publicly-owned parking lot or publicly-owned land, improved or unimproved; any public property where camping obstructs or interferes with the intended public use of the property.”

Exceptions include emergency circumstances such as natural disasters and those who have secured the proper event permit to allow for temporary camping in one of these areas.

The ordinance goes on to state that laying down, sleeping or storing, maintaining or placing personal property in public places, buildings, rights-of-way or paths is also not permitted.

Enforcement involves a notice to leave and if the offender refuses or is found to return within one year to the location the violation occurred, they can be issued a citation or even be placed under arrest.

This is the second action taken by the county in the past seven months, the first of which took the form of Nye County Bill No. 2024-08. This code gave law enforcement the ability to cite or arrest those staying on private property without permission.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at [email protected]