'We're always trying to find the right line'

On a recent April morning, Sgt. AJ Duryea set out along Commercial Street in his police cruiser, scanning the sidewalks for sleeping bags and tents.

Duryea, who’s served the Astoria Police Department for a dozen years, remembers a time when camping was prohibited downtown. As laws have changed, however, so have his interactions with people who are homeless. These days, he starts most mornings pulling up to campsites, waking people up and reminding them of the rules under the city’s camping ordinance.

The ordinance requires campers to pack up by 7 a.m. to avoid citations — a reality homeless residents like Jackie Marshall are no strangers to. Every day, Marshall wakes up, drops her tent and begins packing away her clothes and belongings. Then, in the evenings, she finds a new spot to sleep where she’ll repeat the same process all over again the next morning.

“It’s beyond exhausting,” she said.

Marshall’s experience is one window into camping regulations that play out on the ground in Astoria. It also points to a larger question about how far cities can go to regulate homelessness — a conversation that is now on the national stage.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case that originated in a federal court in 2018 when several homeless people alleged the city’s regulations unconstitutionally punished them for being homeless. A federal district court judge agreed, and on appeal, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the city had violated the Eighth Amendment’s provisions against cruel and unusual punishment by criminalizing homelessness.

Now, the nation’s highest court is revisiting the decision.

The ruling essentially means cities can’t penalize people for sleeping on public property if they don’t have adequate shelter space. In 2021, Oregon codified the same principle into state law, allowing for reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on public camping. Since then, cities across the state have adopted new ordinances to stay in compliance with the law and establish parameters around when and where camping is allowed.

Nearly two years later, city leaders in Astoria and Seaside seem to agree that the ordinances have been effective, but some wish they had more tools for enforcing regulations.

Astoria

Under Astoria’s camping ordinance, which the City Council passed in 2022, people facing homelessness are allowed to sleep on public property in the downtown area between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Sleeping within 10 feet of a building entrance or stairwell is prohibited, and people must leave at least 6 feet of space on city sidewalks.

“I think in terms of expectations, the community knows what to expect, as well as the person who may be facing homelessness,” City Manager Scott Spence said.

When it comes to enforcement of the ordinance, Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly said educating people on the rules and connecting them with resources are priorities. If campers violate regulations, they’re given a warning. A small handful of contacts also lead to citations.

For the most part, Kelly said he feels the ordinance is working. It hasn’t come without its difficulties, though. One of the biggest questions he and Spence have confronted is how to work with the small number of people who choose not to access resources.

“That is probably the hardest part of trying to hopefully transition people into those services, when you don’t have tools to essentially get them into those doorways that they need to,” Spence said.

The city’s citations for violating the ordinance go to Municipal Court, where they’re subject to a maximum fine of $35. Kelly said that also leaves law enforcement with limited options enforcing the rules.

“It’s not illegal, you know, for someone to exist, so that’s where I think we still run into (challenges),” Kelly said. “We try to do as much education as we can, as many opportunities as we can, but our hands are kind of really tied constitutionally and through the state when it comes to what we can enforce and what we can’t enforce.”

Seaside

In 2022, the Seaside City Council established a new ordinance amid growing concerns over unsanctioned homeless camping. The ordinance designated a camping area at Mill Ponds, where homeless people could apply for city permits to stay.

City Manager Spencer Kyle said enforcement evolved over the months that followed, with clearouts gradually shifting from daily to weekly to as-needed. The city also moved the camp to a location on Avenue S last November in response to flooding concerns. The same rules have remained intact at that location.

Kyle said the changes have largely been beneficial. Under the ordinance, camping is prohibited on public property outside of the camp.

“We’ve had some (people) that live along the river that are sleeping in parks, that have slept downtown in the doors of businesses. And most of that — not 100%, but most of that — has largely gone away by providing a place that gets them out of the downtown, away from residents, away from tourists,” he said. “And to their benefit … they’re not looking for a new place each night.”

Having a designated camping area also makes it easier for service providers like Clatsop Community Action and Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare to find people who may need resources. The central location does have some downsides, however. Kyle acknowledged that the camp has had a tremendous impact on a nearby residential neighborhood.

“We’ve always said, there are no good locations, so we’ve had to identify what’s the least bad,” he said. “Seaside does not have very much open land that could accommodate this, and trying our best to keep it out of a residential neighborhood or an area that has possible flooding has proved to be difficult.”

Enforcement has also proven to be a challenge. If a person violates the ordinance, they’re subject to a $25 citation through Municipal Court, but the city can only do so much if they fail to appear or pay the fine. City staff are in discussion about how they might change the process to make it more effective.

“We can write citations, and we can take them to court, but there is no teeth to a lot of things,” Kyle said.

Future implications

Because Oregon law already prevents cities from criminalizing homelessness, Spence said he’s doubtful the Supreme Court’s decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson will have any bearing on local jurisdictions. Whether the Legislature might update Oregon’s laws on homelessness in response to a court ruling, however, is another question.

While the cities’ ordinances don’t make homelessness a crime, Kyle said, they’re also not intended to turn camping into a permanent solution.

The balance between providing resources and maintaining accountability, he added, is a delicate one.

“We’re always trying to find the right line of being humane, keeping to what we are legally required to do, while at the same time not being enablers of behavior that is detrimental,” Kyle said.