PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon judge issued a preliminary injunction Friday blocking the city at the heart of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on homeless encampments from enforcing its camping rules unless it meets certain conditions, as part of a lawsuit filed by advocates.
Under the decision by Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Sarah McGlaughlin, Grants Pass must increase capacity at city-approved sites for camping and ensure they are physically accessible to people with disabilities.
Unless those conditions are met, the order bars the city from citing, arresting or fining people for camping on public property; from forcing people to leave campsites; from removing campsites that are not clearly abandoned; or from prohibiting camping in most city parks.
The order still lets the city enforce rules banning sleeping on sidewalks and streets or in alleys and doorways.
Mayor Clint Scherf told The Associated Press he was “disheartened” by the decision, and Grants Pass information coordinator Mike Zacchino said via email that the city was “reviewing all aspects to ensure we make the best decision for our community.”
The lawsuit was filed by Disability Rights Oregon, which accused the city of discriminating against people with disabilities and violating a state law requiring cities’ camping regulations to be “objectively reasonable.” Plaintiffs also included five homeless people in Grants Pass.
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.
That overturned a California-based appeals court decision that held that camping bans when shelter space is lacking amounted to cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.
Officials from across the political spectrum filed briefs in that case saying they were hamstrung in their ability to deal with encampments.
After the high court ruling, Grants Pass banned camping on all city property except locations designated by the City Council, which established two 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 the complaint. Meanwhile the smaller one saw its hours of operation reduced to between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m., meaning people had to pack up their belongings every morning.
The two sites were frequently crowded, with poor conditions and inaccessible to people with disabilities due to loose gravel, according to the complaint.
“It is unconscionable to me to allow people to live there like that,” City Council member Indra Nicholas said before the vote to close the larger site.
After the lawsuit was filed, the city reopened a second, smaller site and extended the time people could stay to four days.
McGlaughin’s order says the city must increase capacity to what it was previously before the larger site was closed.
Tom Stenson, deputy legal director for Disability Rights Oregon, called the ruling a victory.
“This is not a radical solution. The court is basically saying, ‘Go back to the amount of space and places for people who are homeless that you had just three months ago,’” he told AP.
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 parts.