By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
Roughly a year after Kentucky’s General Assembly made “unlawful camping” a criminal offense, nearly 500 people have been charged statewide, including six people in Barren County.
House Bill 5 became law in 2024, despite the governor’s veto, making a person guilty of unlawful camping when they knowingly enter or remain “on a public or private street, sidewalk, area under a bridge or underpass, path, park, cemetery, or other area designated for use by pedestrians or vehicles, including areas…with the intent to sleep or camp in that area.”
It further states unlawful camping is a violation for the first offense and a Class B misdemeanor — a crime that can result in a fine of up to $250 and up to 90 days in jail — “for the second and each subsequent offense, or if during the first offense the individual refuses to cease the offense.”
The Administrative Office of the Courts announced that from July 15, 2024 to July 2, 2025 a total of 425 people had been cited for this offense with six of those coming from Barren County. Three Barren County cases were in 2024 — two in July and one in October — and three were in 2025 — two in January and one in May.
All six of Barren County’s cases stopped at the first offense, according to the administrative office, and all six were handled in district court.
The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy stated that the now-law “criminalizing homelessness rather than providing a pathway to housing [and] further destabilizes unhoused Kentuckians’ lives and disrupts access to services.”
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