Oregon city at heart of Supreme Court homelessness ruling to ensure camping spaces under settlement

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon city at the heart of a major U.S. Supreme Court homelessness ruling has agreed to ensure camping spaces for at least 150 people as part of a settlement reached with a disability rights group that sued the city over its camping rules.

Disability Rights Oregon, which sued Grants Pass in January, said Friday that it had reached a settlement agreement. The advocacy group accused the city of discriminating against people with disabilities and violating a state law requiring cities’ camping regulations to be “objectively reasonable.”

“This settlement represents a significant step forward in ensuring people with disabilities experiencing homelessness have places to rest, basic necessities like drinking water, and real opportunity to stabilize their lives,” Jake Cornett, executive director and CEO of Disability Rights Oregon, said in a statement.

Grants Pass Mayor Clint Scherf said in an email Tuesday that the city appreciates having reached an agreement and will “continue to work toward effective measures to benefit all members of our community.”

A copy of the settlement agreement showed the city signed off on it earlier this month.

Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Sarah McGlaughlin issued a preliminary injunction in March blocking the city from enforcing its camping rules unless it increased capacity at city-approved sites for camping and ensured they are physically accessible to people with disabilities.

City ordinances prohibit sleeping or leaving personal property in a park overnight in most cases. Those found in violation can be fined up to $50.

The city said Friday on Facebook that law enforcement “will begin noticing the parks, and occupants will have 72 hours to remove their belongings.”

The city’s website shows three “designated resting locations” in the downtown area, near City Hall and the police station, where people can stay for four days before having to relocate. The time limit can be enforced unless disability accommodations are necessary, the city said on Facebook.

At resting sites, individuals are limited to spaces that are 8 feet by 8 feet (2.4 meters by 2.4 meters), with buffers of 3 feet (0.9 meters) between spaces, as outlined in city code.

Under the settlement, Grants Pass must ensure that at least 150 camping spaces are available in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act for the next 12 months. Drinking water and hand washing stations must be available on-site.

The city must also provide $60,000 in grant funding to a nonprofit for homeless services.

Grants Pass, a small city of about 40,000 along the Rogue River in the mountains of southern Oregon, has struggled for years to address the homelessness crisis and become emblematic of the national debate over how to deal with it. Its parks in particular became a flashpoint, with many of them becoming the site of encampments blighted by drug use and litter.

Last June, in a case brought by the city, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that communities can ban sleeping outside and fine people for doing so, even when there are not enough shelter beds.

After the high court ruling, Grants Pass banned camping on all city property except locations designated by the City Council, which established sites for the town’s hundreds of homeless people in a bid to move them from the parks.

Upon taking office in January, the new mayor and new council members moved to close the larger of the two sites, which housed roughly 120 tents, according to Disability Rights Oregon’s complaint, which said the sites were frequently crowded with poor conditions and inaccessible to people with disabilities because of loose gravel. After the lawsuit was filed, the city reopened a second, smaller site.

McGlaughin’s order in March said the city had to increase capacity to what it had been before the larger site was closed.

Homelessness increased 18% last year nationwide, driven mostly by a lack of affordable housing as well as devastating natural disasters and an increase in migrants in some areas.