FILE: With Fruitdale Elementary School in the background, a homeless person walks near a tent in Fruitdale Park, Saturday, March 23, 2024, in Grants Pass, Ore. The rural city of Grants Pass in southern Oregon has become the unlikely face of the nation's homelessness crisis as its case over anti-camping laws goes to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case has broad implications for cities, including whether they can fine or jail people for camping in public.
Jenny Kane / AP
Oregon’s top Democrats are showing no sign they will prioritize changes next year to a law that limits how cities regulate homeless camping in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that is causing leaders in other states to rethink their strategies.
As a growing contingent of lawmakers in both parties demands a reexamination of state law, the leaders of the House and Senate have declined to create a group specifically to take up the matter. Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, and House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, told OPB that any debate over changes to the law don’t need the formal workgroup some in their party have requested.
Meanwhile, Gov. Tina Kotek, the author of the statute currently giving some elected officials heartburn, has said only that she would consider any ideas lawmakers send her way.
“Like any legislation that lawmakers may wish to take up, the Governor will review any changes the Legislature believes are necessary,” a spokesperson for Kotek said last month.
In a June 28 ruling in the case of Grants Pass v Johnson, the Supreme Court upended lower-court rulings that restricted how states throughout the western United States could enforce camping bans. The court’s decision found that Grants Pass’ policy penalizing people who sit or sleep on public property did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. That created more leeway for officials like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who last week issued an executive order directing state agencies to more proactively clear campsites.
In Oregon, little has changed. A bill passed at the urging of then-House Speaker Kotek in 2021 sought to enshrine a now-defunct legal standard set by federal judges: that cities should not bar people from sleeping outside unless there is shelter space available as an alternative.
The legislation, House Bill 3115, requires that any local regulations on where people can sleep be “objectively reasonable.” The law allows people experiencing homelessness to sue if they believe city policies don’t meet that standard. But the term “objectively reasonable” isn’t defined in the law, and courts have not opined on what it means, creating uncertainty around exactly what limits the bill created for cities.
That hasn’t stopped critics from hammering the policy. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Oregon Republicans dubbed it a “right-to-camp” law, claiming that Oregon would see an influx of homeless residents if it did not alter its standard.
Some members of Kotek’s own party have voiced misgivings about the status-quo, too. Last month a group of seven centrist Democrats sent a letter to Fahey and Wagner, requesting a workgroup that would examine how the current law works and consider changes.
HB 3115 “was written with good intent, but given the recent reversal, it may be time to adjust our course,” the letter says. “We believe the law now exceeds the legitimate authority of local government to determine appropriate policies balancing the needs of the homeless and the general public safety.”
The letter was spearheaded by state Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, and Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, who opposed HB 3115 when it initially passed in 2021. It was also signed by state Reps. David Gomberg, Emerson Levy and John Lively, and state Sens. Janeen Sollman and James Manning.
The letter suggests there is significant support in the Legislature for doing something to change the law: the three Senate Democrats who signed, combined with 13 Senate Republicans, would represent a majority of the 30-member chamber.
But legislative leaders have demurred on creating a one-off workgroup to take up the matter. In a statement to OPB, Fahey suggested she believes the law on the books is doing its job.
“Current law in Oregon allows cities to set reasonable restrictions on how, when, and where public camping can occur,” Fahey said. “Legislators who are interested in proposing changes to the law have the opportunity to take the next few months to work with legal and policy experts, local governments, and fellow legislators to bring proposals forward for consideration next year.”
Wagner, meanwhile, suggested that lawmakers with concerns go through the normal committee process.
“Interim legislative committees will meet several more times in advance of next year’s legislative session and are an appropriate venue for ongoing policy considerations related to this critical challenge, which I know is top of mind for Oregonians,” he said in a statement.
The two lawmakers who hold the most sway over housing issues, state Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, and state Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland, have said they don’t see a need to change state law.
Evans, one of the lawmakers who kickstarted the letter to leadership, said Friday he had asked legislative attorneys for an analysis of current state law, and is speaking to lawmakers in both parties about next steps.
“I don’t have a prescribed solution yet,” he said. “I do believe that this is an issue that has caught the public’s attention. Everybody wins if we provide clarity.”
Clarity seemed hard to come by in the state’s largest city, which recently began enforcing restrictions on homeless camping crafted in line with current statute.
In Portland’s case, however, confusion didn’t stem from state law, but from poor communication between top officials. City Hall never bothered to clarify whether the Multnomah County sheriff would book people who were arrested for violating the city policy into the county jail. It turns out she won’t.
