Boulder is stepping up enforcement of its camping ban, ending its practice of giving people 72 hours’ notice before clearing their belongings along the Boulder Creek Path.
While the city’s notice policy remains in place in most areas, Boulder will no longer provide advance warning before clearing a person’s belongings along a roughly one-mile stretch of Boulder Creek near the library and Civic Area. The change builds on a more aggressive approach to enforcing the camping ban that the city began implementing last year, when it posted temporary notices along much of the creek path allowing police to immediately ticket people for camping and arrest those who resisted.
Now, permanent signs have replaced the temporary pink notices, warning that items may be removed at any time.
The city’s 72-hour notice policy was based on a national review of best practices and numerous court decisions. But the legal landscape for camping bans has shifted in recent years.
In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that enforcing camping bans does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, even when shelter beds are unavailable. The ruling led a judge to dismiss a similar challenge to Boulder’s camping ban under the Colorado Constitution. An appeal failed this year, and the plaintiffs are now seeking review by the Colorado Supreme Court.
City spokesperson Shannon Aulabaugh said the new policy is intended to prevent obstructions on multiuse paths and in underpasses and reduce “the negative effects of unsanctioned camping in public spaces along” the creek path.
But Andy McNulty, a civil rights attorney involved in the lawsuit challenging Boulder’s camping ban, said removing people’s belongings without advance notice violates the due process protections of the 14th Amendment. That is a separate constitutional issue from the cruel and unusual punishment question addressed in the Supreme Court ruling.
“It’s frankly just flat-out illegal,” he said. “There’s a lot of case law that says that you have to give notice prior to seizing someone’s property.”
Aulabaugh said exceptions to the city’s 72-hour notice requirement are “narrowly tailored in order to comply with legal requirements.”
McNulty disagreed. “There are no narrow exceptions to the Constitution,” he said.
Cities across the country have reconsidered their camping enforcement policies since the 2024 Supreme Court ruling. In Colorado, Aurora eliminated its 72-hour notice requirement before encampment removals last year. Denver, by contrast, continues to provide at least 48 hours’ notice.
Boulder’s new encampment removal zones mark the first formal change to its camping ban enforcement protocols in over two years. In 2023, voters approved the “Safe Zones 4 Kids” ballot measure, which prioritized the “removal of prohibited items near schools, sidewalks and multi-use paths.”
According to the new signs, interfering with removal operations can result in a citation or arrest under city law. So far, the policy does not appear to have led to a significant increase in citations for camping or obstructing government operations, although citations are up this year compared to 2025.
The more aggressive enforcement comes amid several other changes in homelessness policy aimed at moving people out of downtown and, in some cases, out of the city.
This year, the city moved homelessness services away from Central Park. The city and All Roads, which runs the city’s largest shelter, have also begun prioritizing people with local connections for services. Shelter stays are limited to 10 days for people without demonstrated ties to Boulder County, while people with longer histories in the city receive preference for subsidized apartments.
The city is also prioritizing “diversion,” an effort meant to help people get out of homelessness without providing subsidized housing. That can mean paying for a car repair, reconnecting someone with family, covering a rent deposit or providing a bus ticket out of town.
The shift in city policy comes as Boulder is also losing a major provider of homelessness services, narrowing the options for people being moved out of public spaces. Bridge House, which has served people experiencing homelessness for nearly 30 years, announced this week that it is closing amid financial troubles. Its Ready to Work program, which provides employment, transitional housing and case management to as many as 44 people in Boulder, will close by Dec. 31, eliminating a key pathway from homelessness to stable housing and employment.
Read: Bridge House to close after nearly 30 years serving Boulder’s homeless population
