Saturday 13 January 2024

Do You Have Camping Rights?

 I noticed this week that the Supreme Court has decided to listen to an argument...... whether cities can ban homeless folks from public streets/neighborhoods.

After pondering over it....I came to the logical question....do you have camping rights?

It's really not about homeless discussions....it's about you having some right to camp out in a city park, or on a sidewalk, or on a parking spot of a road/street.

If I were a Justice sitting there....it'd be a fairly easy answer.  Camping always costs something...even if you were on a state park, national forest area, or state lake front.  So the logical answer here....once you set up a tent,  you need to pay the city or county some fee. It shouldn't matter if this is in a city park, or on some sidewalk in a industrial area.

I'm of the mind that $20 a day is a fair rate.....unless the city is providing toilet/water services (in that case....$40 would be fine).

Yeah, the way to handle this....flush people out of urban zones.  If some city wants to offer up camp grounds?  Fine...establish a true camping park, with inspections and requirements...maybe offer a $50-a-week fee.  

I'll admit up front, this is a stupid argument, but I would imagine Justice Thomas (being a RV-camper) has an idea or two...that he will share with the other Justices.  This might be interesting to hear the discussion.  

3 comments:

Bigus Macus said...

Is there a problem like this in Germany or the rest of Europe?

Schnitzel_Republic said...

Before 2000, no.

Past decade, I can walk around Wiesbaden and find around 50-odd people who readily camp (sleeping-bag style) in the shopping district or in the city park. Just analyzing statistics....I would imagine 390 'campers' by 2030. A lot tied to drugs.

In Frankfurt, with an active drug-scene...probably up around 2,500 in the city who camp or 'hide-out' in basements.

But they run an active social agency...getting people into studio-1 room situations.

Ramstein AB, from 1992 to 2004...had a homeless guy on base (retired NCO from Rhein Main AB) who slept out in the woods...showered in the gym, and eventually was told the base wouldn't accept this anymore. Don't know what happened to him.

LargeMarge said...

2003, after a devastating diagnosis, we built our ExpeditionVehicle while selling everything.
Over two decades full-time live-aboard, we boondock exclusively... primarily along the east coast of the Pacific plus Baja.
.
Doing the 'stealth' camping thing in some city?
Laying in an intoxicated coma across sidewalks, lumped in with other zombies as 'TheHomeless™'?
Not interested.