Homeless people can't be cited, arrested or fined for camping in Grants Pass, for now.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reports a Josephine County Circuit Court judge has issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit against the city. The lawsuit, filed in January by Disability Rights Oregon and five homeless plaintiffs, alleges Grants Pass' treatment of homeless people violates state law, including disability protections.
On Friday afternoon, Judge Sarah McGlaughlin issued an injunction preventing the city from enforcing its public camping laws until it has fulfilled two conditions. Grants Pass has to increase its designated camping sites to the same capacity it previously offered before the city closed an approximately 1.2-acre site in January. The city must also ensure all resting sites "provide accessible routes and surfaces" for people with disabilities. These restrictions don’t apply to either Riverside Park or Reinhart Volunteer Park.
Grants Pass currently has two sites for homeless people to rest near the police station and City Hall. The city only recently got out from under another court injunction, which lasted for four years. It was part of a different lawsuit over Grants Pass' treatment of homeless people, which the US Supreme Court decided in the city's favor.
But in January, this new lawsuit was filed, and with it, now another injunction. A big question in the current lawsuit is whether the city's public camping ordinances are "objectively reasonable," as required by Oregon's House Bill 3115. But that term isn't clearly defined.
Aaron Hisel, the attorney representing the city of Grants Pass in this case, argued last week the case should head to a trial.
