Overview:
• A county ordinance didn’t allow Fayetteville police to evict homeless people camping at the downtown library during A Dickens Holiday in November.
• The no-camping ordinance was first enacted in 2022 to address people camping around the library and leaving trash.
• Those who violate the ordinance can be given no-trespassing notices. If they return, they can be criminally prosecuted.
Following complaints about homeless people camping at the Cumberland County Public Library downtown during a festival in November, the county on Tuesday revised its anti-camping ordinance to make it easier to enforce.
Under the revision, the Fayetteville Police Department is authorized to enforce the ordinance. Prior to the change, only the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office could provide enforcement.
The ordinance applies to anyone who camps or otherwise tries to live on county property.
This winter, it’s common to see a cluster of homeless people outdoors around the library’s headquarters branch on Maiden Lane in downtown Fayetteville, including on nights when the temperature drops below freezing. Some people are on city sidewalks and some are on the library’s grounds. Sometimes homeless people sleep at a side door of the Cumberland County Courthouse.
Police Had to Call the Sheriff
The popular “A Dickens Holiday” festival draws thousands of people downtown on the day after Thanksgiving to kick off the Christmas season.
Homeless people were camping at the library during the event in November, and city police officers could not enforce the no-camping ordinance, Cumberland County Commission Chair Kirk deViere said at a January 15 commissioners meeting. The police department asked the sheriff’s office to send deputies, he said.
After the festival, the city offered to enforce the county ordinance, he said.
“This is a way that we are working with them to try to ensure that when we have a downtown event like we did over the holidays, Dickens holidays, where there’s over 100,000 people in downtown, and we had our front porch of one of our public facilities that could have gotten cleaned up because it was recognized by police … but we had to contact the sheriff and get them to bring people out,” deViere said. “We could have facilitated it quicker.”
The anti-camping ordinance was enacted in 2022, County Attorney Rick Moorefield told the county commissioners at the January 15 meeting.
“This came about because of the situation at the library, on the library premises then,” he said. “And there was a lot of trash, human excrement.”
Some points of the ordinance:
- “To avoid a public health nuisance being created by the accumulation of trash, garbage, or waste, and the lack of sanitary disposal facilities, camping or establishing a camp on county property is prohibited.”
- “Any person camping or establishing a camp on county property shall be deemed trespassing on county property.”
- A deputy or police officer may give a trespassing notice to someone who is camping. If the person comes back to the location, they can be criminally charged with trespassing.
The ordinance defines camping as sleeping or preparing to sleep—such as lying down or setting out bedding—on the property, or storing personal belongings on the property.
It also defines camping as the placement of tents, huts, or tarps on the property for accommodations, or parking a vehicle, trailer, or any other type of structure on the property in order to live there. In other words, a person who lives in their car is allowed to park in a county-owned parking lot so long as they don’t keep it there to live there.
Shelter Options for Cold Days
On bitterly cold days, the county and city allow people to stay in public libraries and other government buildings, but they have to leave at night. People can also stay during the day at the Salvation Army of the Sandhills shelter at 245 Alexander St. near downtown Fayetteville.
The county works with Cornerstone Christian Empowerment Center at 111 N. Bragg Blvd. in Spring Lake to provide overnight shelter on cold nights. People in Fayetteville can take a shuttle to Cornerstone from the Fayetteville Cares Day Resource Center at 128 S. King St.
The Salvation Army used to provide overnight shelter on cold nights under a contract with the county. That arrangement ended in 2025 after the shelter suddenly shut down, and due to deficiencies on the part of the Salvation Army.
The issues have been resolved, county officials said in mid-December. Since then, the county has been trying to lock in a new contract with the Salvation Army for sheltering services. As of Wednesday, deViere told CityView, the county was still waiting for the Salvation Army to return the contract for approval by the board of commissioners.
The county government is also preparing to build a facility, called the Unhoused Support Center, to provide shelter and other services for homeless people.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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