Camping and sleeping outdoors on public property in Hampton is now banned after City Council on Wednesday approved an ordinance asked for by some residents and business owners.
Advocates for people without housing, however, say the ban criminalizes homelessness and could create more roadblocks for people to get back on their feet.
“Camping bans work as another effort to oppress people that are already facing hardships,” said Amanda Ofsonka, a director with The Planning Council, a Norfolk-based organization that manages the Peninsula’s database on people experiencing homelessness.
Hampton leaders say that’s not the intent and that prosecution is a last resort. Violations are a Class 2 misdemeanor, which carries penalties of up to six months in jail and $1,000 in fines. Police will be required to give several warnings and offer housing assistance before issuing a court summons, and to only issue them if people refuse to leave when asked.
City Manager Mary Bunting believes the ordinance is a compassionate approach to addressing business and neighborhood concerns about “disruptive” behavior, such as public urination.
“Everybody says, ‘Well, then the police just give them a ticket for those things,’ but the police have to see them do it and they usually don’t,” Bunting said.
Raymond Tripp, Coliseum Central executive director, supported the ban. He said people camping and storing items in public spaces can “discourage residents from using our public transit system” and deter business investment.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2024 cleared the way for anti-camping laws when it ruled that bans could be enforced as long as they didn’t specifically target groups of people.
That’s how Hampton characterizes its ordinance, which the city’s been working on since 2025. The city has since downgraded possible penalties from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a Class 2, the lowest penalty that gives people access to public defenders and allows their cases to be diverted to behavioral health dockets if they choose.
Ordinance opponents question the region’s capacity to help when resources are stretched to the limit. Only 38% of the Peninsula’s emergency shelter beds were available year-round in 2025. Federal funding for long-term housing support programs, which make up two-thirds of the Peninsula’s housing resources, could decrease significantly in 2027 after federal courts stopped the cuts attempted for this year.
Coupled with increasing costs and federal cuts to programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, Ofsonka fears an increase in people slipping into homelessness. She said the ban might move people to private property where they could get charged with trespassing.
That would “make it more difficult to serve them in the long run, because that adds to their criminal histories, which landlords find ways to exclude people based on those criminal histories.”
Bunting, though, is guaranteeing the city will help anyone who wants it. She set aside money to put people in hotels for a limited time, similar to what was done during COVID, if no other options are available or suitable based on a person’s circumstances or demographics. Her 2027 budget proposal includes millions for transitional and long-term housing support, something Newport News City Manager Alan Archer is doing as well.
The changes to the ordinance made most of the council comfortable; it plans to review how it works in six months.
“I know this ordinance is not perfect, but it’s a start,” said Councilmember Carolyn Campbell.
But for Vice Mayor Steve Brown and Councilmember Michelle Ferebee, it still didn’t sit right.
“After months of work, it represents a solution,” Ferebee said. “But from our perspective, it’s not the right solution.”
