NC House schedules vetoed public-camping and drug-free homeless service zone bill

House Bill 437 would create new drug-free zones around homeless-service facilities and restrict local governments from allowing regular public camping or sleeping on public property.

RALEIGH — The North Carolina House has placed a vetoed bill dealing with public camping, homelessness services and drug penalties on its calendar for Tuesday, Aug. 4.

House Bill 437, titled “Drug-Free Zones/Unauthorized Public Camping,” was vetoed July 8 after being ratified July 1, according to the General Assembly’s bill history. The bill’s latest action shows it was placed on the House calendar for Aug. 4.

The ratified bill would create “drug-free homeless service zones” tied to emergency or temporary shelters and transitional housing providers that receive local, state or federal funds to provide shelter to homeless people. Under the bill, a person who commits certain controlled-substance offenses in such a zone would be guilty of a Class E felony if the person knows or reasonably should know the location is a drug-free homeless service zone.

The bill also would create a statewide framework restricting public camping or sleeping on public property controlled by local governments. The measure says a local government may not authorize or otherwise allow regular public camping or sleeping on public property, including public buildings, grounds and rights of way, unless it follows a designation process.

Under the bill, a local governing board could designate local-government-owned property for public camping or sleeping for no longer than one year. The designated site would have to meet standards related to safety, sanitation, access to behavioral health services and prohibitions on illegal substance and alcohol use. The Department of Labor would have to certify the site before the designation became effective.

The measure also would allow a resident, business owner or the attorney general to bring a civil action against a local government to stop an alleged violation, after providing notice and allowing 15 business days for the local government to cure the alleged violation.

The drug-free homeless service zone section would become effective Dec. 1, 2026, and apply to offenses committed on or after that date. The public-camping section would become effective June 30, 2027, with Department of Labor rulemaking required by that same date. Other provisions would become effective when the bill becomes law.

The bill’s primary sponsors are Rep. Heather H. Rhyne, Rep. Allen Chesser and Rep. Ray Pickett.

Editor’s note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.