Democrats back cities limiting camping on public property

(PORTLAND TRIBUNE) -- At least two Democratic legislators say they want to revisit a 2021 law requiring Oregon cities to adopt “objectively reasonable” standards when they regulate the place, time and manner of camping on public property.

The calls by Rep. Paul Evans of Monmouth and Sen. Mark Meek of Gladstone echo those made by the Republican minority leaders in the House and Senate, Rep. Jeff Helfrich of Hood River and Sen. Daniel Bonham of The Dalles.

All of them did so after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 28 in favor of Grants Pass in a challenge to a 2018 federal appeals court decision, which held that cities engage in cruel and unusual punishment when they levy criminal penalties on people sleeping outdoors if they offer no alternatives such as shelters. Boise, Idaho, settled that lawsuit out of court in 2019.

Among those joining in support of Grants Pass was a combined brief from the League of Oregon Cities, its counterpart organizations in Washington and Idaho, Special Districts Association of Oregon and the city of Portland. The Oregon Law Center represented the defendants, Gloria Johnson and John Logan, and the Oregon Food Bank led several other organizations filed a separate brief on their behalf.

In 2021, Oregon lawmakers wrote standards into law in House Bill 3115, whose chief sponsor was Tina Kotek, the Portland Democrat who then was House speaker and now is governor. Evans and Meek — the latter was then in the House — were two of the three Democrats who voted against it, along with Rep. David Gomberg of Otis. (Rep. Brian Clem of Salem, who resigned in late 2021, was the only Democrat who did not vote. Clem said later he also would have voted against it.)

“We need to review the law that we passed and provide certainty for local governments,” Evans said in a brief interview.

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