The small Oregon city at the heart of a recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows cities to enforce outdoor sleeping bans has voted to prohibit camp
FILE - David Wilson sits outside his tent at Riverside Park on Thursday, March 21, 2024, in Grants Pass , Ore. The small Oregon city at the heart of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on outdoor sleeping bans has voted to prohibit camping but establish certain areas where homeless people can go.
The move marks the city's first change to its anti-camping laws since the high court's June decision paved the way for outdoor sleeping bans across the country. Local officials in the mountain town have struggled for years to address a homelessness crisis that has divided residents and sparked a fierce fight over park space.
The Supreme Court found that outdoor sleeping bans don’t violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The decision overturned a lower court ruling that said enforcing such bans when shelter space was lacking was unconstitutional and had prevented Grants Pass from enforcing local anti-camping ordinances.
Grants Pass has just one overnight shelter for adults, the Gospel Rescue Mission. It has 138 beds, but rules including attendance at daily Christian services, no alcohol, drugs or smoking and no pets mean many won’t stay there. The sites, which are on city-owned property, are not meant to be permanent homeless shelters or campgrounds, Bristol said. The city intends to provide toilets, hand-washing stations and dumpsters at the sites, which will not be staffed.
Bristol hopes that plans for two more homeless shelters, including one specifically for people who are on a waitlist for a residential drug treatment program, will provide other places for homeless people to go. In the long term, the city is also looking at ways to incentivize the development of multifamily and affordable housing, she said.
Homeless Camping Supreme Court Ban Sites Bristol Ordinances
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