Police chief wants limits on homeless camping

kerryinbox
Nov 17, 2021
3 min read

Baker City Police Chief Ty Duby plans to ask the City Council to approve an ordinance limiting where, and when, people can camp on public property within the city limits. Duby said he was prompted to act by a bill that the Oregon Legislature passed earlier this year and that Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed into law on June 23.

The law — introduced as House Bill 3115 and passed by the Democratic majorities in both the state House and Senate — is based on a 2019 federal court ruling in a Boise case that in effect prohibited cities and counties from making it illegal for people to sleep outdoors in public spaces if the jurisdiction doesn’t provide indoor alternatives.

Baker County’s two state legislators, Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, and Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, both voted against the bill. The new Oregon law states that cities or counties which have ordinances that regulate “the acts of sitting, lying, sleeping or keeping warm and dry outdoors on public property that is open to the public must be objectively reasonable as to time, place and manner with regards to persons experiencing homelessness.”

The law also states that “A person experiencing homelessness may bring suit for injunctive or declaratory relief to challenge the objective reasonableness of a city or county law.” The law states that “reasonableness shall be determined based on the totality of the circumstances, including, but not limited to, the impact of the law on persons experiencing homelessness.” Baker City has no such ordinance, Duby said. Nor does the city have an indoor facility for homeless people to stay. That means they can legally camp on public property with no limitations. However, Duby said he doesn’t believe anyone, including homeless people, has a legal right to keep their possessions indefinitely on public property or to block people from using sidewalks, streets or other public rights-of-way.

“The way I look at it, you have the right to sleep (on public property), but that doesn’t mean you can collect all this stuff and have it strewn about on public property and sidewalks,” Duby said. “It’s not fair to the neighbors, and it’s not fair to the city.”

Another city’s response Duby said he doesn’t know specifically when he’ll propose an ordinance to the City Council. But he said it will likely be modeled after an ordinance that the Coos Bay City Council, on the southern Oregon Coast, adopted in August.

The Baker City Council has discussed the situation and the city’s potential options, Mayor Kerry McQuisten said. “Failed legislation from Salem has put several laws on the books regarding homelessness and drug use that are actually creating this problem for our city and every city across the state,” McQuisten wrote in a message to the Herald.

The Coos Bay ordinance allows camping on some public property, but only between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. The ordinance bans camping in city parks and on public property in high-density, medium-density and small-lot residential areas. The Coos Bay World newspaper reported in August that Coos Bay Police Chief Chris Chapanar told city councilors that the ordinance was a balance between the court ruling that allows the homeless to camp and the city’s right to manage the time, manner and place that camping is allowed. “One of the biggest facts to consider is without an ordinance, municipalities will have no way to lawfully regulate such activities,” Chapanar said.

The Coos Bay ordinance, which took effect in September, allows people to use tents, tarps, sleeping bags and other temporary shelters from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. The ordinance also allows people to sleep in cars parked on most public property during those hours. But the ordinance prohibits people from storing camping equipment, including tents, tarps and sleeping bags, on public property from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Coos Bay World reported that Coos Bay City Manager Rodger Craddock, responding to residents upset that the city was allowing homeless to camp on public property, said: “It’s not that we’re allowing it. It’s already allowed under state law. We don’t have a choice. This gives us a tool to regulate it.”

A growing problem Duby said the city’s homeless population seems to have increased over the past few years, based on his own observations and from what he’s heard from other police officers and from the public. This summer the police department received multiple complaints from residents about people camping beneath the bridges along the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway, Duby said. City workers installed barriers to prevent people from setting up camps beneath some bridges, he said. Duby said a couple tents have also been pitched near the Powder River south of Wade Williams Park.