Yreka to begin enforcing no-camping ordinance

The opening of shelter facilities in Yreka has prompted city officials to begin enforcing an ordinance that prohibits unhoused residents from camping on public property.

A homeless encampment on Campus Drive in Yreka, Calif. on July 18, 2025. Yreka will begin enforcing a no-camping ordinance at the of the month. Skip Descant/ Siskiyou County Dispatch

Unhoused campers in Yreka have until the end of the month to clear their belongings from public property, or face a city citation.

The move stems from a no-camping ordinance the City County passed in August 2024, all but criminalizing homelessness. At the time, with so little shelter opportunities, the council quietly hit the pause button on enforcement of the ordinance.

Since then, Siskiyou Village, the 15-unit collection of standalone rooms, neatly clustered on a narrow tree-shaded lot on South Foothill Drive near downtown Yreka, opened in May. The shelter is structured primarily around people who have processed through the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Court, a new state program to assist the many Californians suffering from mental health and living on the streets.

Siskiyou Village, a collection of 15 small, standalone rooms, neatly clustered on a narrow tree-shaded lot on South Foothill Drive near downtown Yreka, opened May 28. The facility will support the area’s unhoused population. Skip Descant/ Siskiyou County Dispatch

Next week, Yreka Basecamp, a $2 million, 32-bed shelter, is set to open on Main Street.

It’s not entirely clear if the Yreka possesses adequate shelter facilities to meet the city’s housing needs for its homeless population.

“We do not have an estimate of roughly how many persons are camping in and around the city at this time,” write John Elsnab, interim City Manager, in an email. “And therefore cannot make comment on that amount in light of the number of shelter facilities.”

Councilman Corey Middleton urged the council to take put the nearly 1-year-old ordinance into enforcement.

“I think it’s time now that we start enforcing what we decided on,” said Middleton at the June 17 council meeting.

Middleton was also the council member who urged the council to consider and adopt the ordinance last year following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, where the court ruled cities and counties may enact laws to prohibit what is generally regarded as public camping by those who are unhoused.

The ordinance passed by Yreka prohibits camping in areas like public parks, sidewalks, and other locations the like the hillside on Campus Drive near Siskiyou County Behavioral Health Services.

Penalties for violating the ordinance would start at $50 for a first offense, climbing to $200 for the second offense and amounting to $500 for a third or more, according to a report in the Siskiyou Daily News. The offenses can be treated as a misdemeanor.