‘Enforcement is really about love’: Sedgwick County may create anti-camping ordinance
.JPG "Jillian Castaneda, a housing crisis navigator with the United Way of the Plains, speaks to an unhoused person at an encampment. Castaneda is part of a team that helps get chronically homeless people into housing – a program that was recently affected by federal funding cuts.")
Some Sedgwick County commissioners want an anti-camping ordinance that they say would disband homeless encampments and get people into services that would help them.
The ordinance would be enforceable only in unincorporated areas of the county. It is likely to be much like the ordinance adopted by Wichita in 2024.
The conversation comes as commissioners say they’re receiving complaints from business owners and residents about growing issues with the homeless.
“Enforcement is really about love,” Commissioner Jim Howell said. “If you really want to love and have compassion towards someone you have to enforce these laws because it moves in the direction that they actually get the real help they need.”
The ordinance is yet to be crafted, as the county is likely to have future conversations during staff meetings to discuss it.
According to Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter, the county doesn’t see many issues with illegal camping on county-owned property.
“We have very few encampments,” Easter said at a joint meeting between the city and county earlier this week. “We’ve had none so far this year.”
The county already has policies that address illegal camping at Lake Afton and Sedgwick County Park, parks where it sees the most issues. The department often also uses state laws for trespassing to enforce anti-camping issues.
Camping is strictly prohibited at Sedgwick County Park. The county also changed its long-term camping policy at Lake Afton in 2024, reducing the number of days from 300 to 56.
Easter said in two instances last year they were able to use county or state regulations to ask those people to not camp at those locations. The sheriff said they also brought out services, like the county’s mental health provider COMCARE, before taking any law enforcement action.
However, some homeless encampments have recently been reported along the Big Ditch in west Wichita, which weaves through city and county property.
Wichita’s anti-camping ordinance allows the city to remove encampments without having to post advance notices. It also allows people to be ticketed for illegal camping if they refuse to leave.
But people can’t be ticketed unless shelter beds are available nearby.
Some city officials have expressed recent frustration with the city’s shelter, Second Light, because it doesn’t have enough shelter beds available to enforce the ordinance.
Of the shelter’s 130 beds, 100 are set aside for people in Second Light’s Shelter+Services program, which offers a bed and services to eventually transition them into housing.
The remaining 30 beds are night-by-night beds, with six of those held for people who are dropped off by law enforcement.
Sedgwick County Commissioner Ryan Baty, who sits on the Second Light board, spoke in support of the program beds at Wednesday’s commission meeting.
“I’m a major, major proponent of program beds versus just shelter beds,” Baty said. “I think if you come into sheltering, it’s one thing, it keeps people alive, but there’s no expectation they’re going to engage in any programming, and that doesn’t move the needle on homelessness.”