Proposed Oregon bill aims to limit bans on homeless camping

PORTLAND – Cities and counties in Oregon aiming to ban homeless people from sitting, sleeping and camping on public property may soon face a barrier under a proposed bill introduced by state lawmakers earlier this month.

House Bill 3115 would require local governments to be “objectively reasonable” when regulating sitting lying, sleeping or keeping warm and dry on public property.

If passed, the measure would largely force cities statewide to comply with the well known “camping lawsuit” in Boise, Idaho, where a federal judge ruled that prosecuting people for sleeping on the streets, when there are no shelter beds available, as unconstitutional and cruel and unusual punishment.

“We have a lot of folks continuing to live in public spaces, and that ruling in the court said that you can’t penalize people for experiencing homelessness if there isn’t enough shelter,” Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, who is the sponsor of the bill, said Monday.

Twelve years ago a group of homeless people sued the city of Boise, Idaho, for ticketing them for sleeping outside, despite there being a shortage of shelter beds in the area. In 2018 the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that cities cannot prosecute people for sleeping on the streets if there is nowhere else for them to go.

On Monday a $1.8 million settlement was reached in the Robert Martin v. City of Boise case, this includes $1.3 million to create overnight shelters or rehabilitate existing shelter spaces, $435,000 for the plaintiffs’ attorneys and $5,000 in damages to the plaintiffs.

In addition the city of Boise will not cite or arrest people when no shelter is available, officials said Monday.

The 9th Circuit is the largest court of appeals, meaning the ruling affects Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Due to rulings, cities can already face challenges in federal court, however officials say Oregon’s proposed bill is designed to ensure cities and counties around the state are aligned with federal rulings.

Kotek said that the proposed bill would help set guidance for local government, as it relates to the Martin v. Boise decision “about how local jurisdictions should work on and how they should treat folks experiencing homelessness.”

Oregon has had similar recent cases to the one in Idaho.

In July 2020, a U.S. judge ruled that Grants Pass, Oregon, violated its homeless residents’ Eighth Amendment rights by excluding them from parks without due process and citing them for sleeping outside.

“If you have folks living on the streets, in public spaces or on public property, what the court ruled is if you can’t justify moving folks along because there’s not enough shelter, then you have to have a different standard for how you treat them, and from my perspective, that is more humanely,” Kotek said.

House Bill 3115 still must go before multiple committee hearings before it is voted on.