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Though a local attorney urged them to wait on the outcome of a Supreme Court case involving Grants Pass, Brookings city councilors approved new regulations governing when and where those who are “involuntarily homeless” can camp.

Before he and his colleagues unanimously approved the city’s camping ordinance on Monday, Mayor Isaac Hodges said he had received several emails from residents urging them to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in Grants Pass v. Johnson. But, he said, there’s no telling how long it will take for that to happen.

“With summer here, we need to support our city workers and our law enforcement with an updated ordinance,” he said.

Hodges commended city staff for referencing laws in other cities that have been upheld while providing commentary on the recent court cases addressing homelessness.

“I think it’s sad that a small community like us [is] so concerned about the precedents that our judicial system is setting, but it’s understandable,” he said. “They, a large swath of our judiciary, are supporting factions who willingly feed off taxpayer funds — that’s my money and yours — usually in the form of grants, who then file, or at least threaten to file, lawsuits against a municipality that tries to do the right thing. And in doing so, they’re using more taxpayer dollars to get what they want and they seem to be doing so through a judiciary that’s allowing that.”

The Brookings Municipal Code currently outlaws camping in public parks and recreational areas, according to Development Services Director Tony Baron.

Baron referenced the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 2018 ruling in Martin v. Boise, the U.S. District Court of Medford 2020 ruling in Blake v. Grants Pass and, finally, Johnson v. Grants Pass, which, he said, label any camping restriction as cruel and unusual punishment if enforced.

“The Martin v. Boise decision left a void in how cities are able to enforce transient camping in public parks,” Baron told councilors. “With each additional case thereafter, the ability to enforce a camping ordinance has been extremely complex. Staff and the city attorney feel that language [in an ordinance] can be drafted in a way that meets the benchmark of each case while meeting the desire of the community to preserve safe and usable parks for all.”

Brookings’ new ordinance allows those who are “involuntarily homeless” to camp in the public right of way from 30 minutes before sunset until 30 minutes after sunrise in any one location.
However, camping isn’t allowed in residential areas, city parks, including Azalea Park, Chetco Town Center, within riparian areas and on public property within 200 feet of Chetco Avenue, Old County Road and North Bank Road within city limits.

Campsites must not obstruct sidewalk accessibility and must be limited to 144 square feet.

The ordinance also addresses camping in vehicles. The city’s parking regulations still apply, though the camping ordinance states individuals may shelter or sleep in their vehicles in the public right of way.

The new camping ordinance prohibits camping on city property as long as the city manager designates an area where camping is permitted. It allows the city manager to modify or suspend enforcement of the ordinance in an emergency or during extreme weather conditions. The ordinance also states that any violations should only result in a citation “when other means of achieving compliance have been unsuccessful.”

When drafting the ordinance, the city’s community resource officer and city attorney Lori Cooper reviewed language in the Hillsboro, Bend and Medford municipal codes, Baron said.

Despite staff’s assertion that the ordinance preserves safe and usable parks for all, attorney Sr. Cora Rose, who heads St. Timothy Episcopal Church’s legal aid ministry, urged councilors to wait for guidance from the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in Johnson v. Grants Pass on April 22.

The case stems from a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of Debra Blake in October 2018. When Blake died in 2021, Gloria Johnson and John Logan took over as class representatives while the case made its way through appeals, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported last month.

On Sept. 28, 2022, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, stating that Grants Pass couldn’t enforce its “anticamping ordinance against homeless persons for the mere act of sleeping outside with rudimentary protection from the elements or for sleeping in their car at night when there was no other place in the city for them to go.”

Grants Pass officials stated that the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution applies to torture or hard labor sentences not tickets, CNN reported on April 22.

On Monday, Rose said Brookings’ camping ordinance didn’t clearly lay out where people can and can’t camp. The ordinance also doesn’t clearly state what prohibited conduct is, she said.

“It lists so many different types of property that were excluded that the people I polled were not able to identify a place that would not be an excluded property,” Rose said. “The way to make the ordinance a bit more administrable would be to revise the ordinance to clearly and specifically [state] where people may be and incorporate a map for reference that does provide what city easements and rights of way or other city locations would be allowable.”

Rose said she was concerned that the ordinance would eliminate current safe options for people and put them at risk of harm. Parks and other real property offer a buffer between someone who’s sleeping in only a tent and vehicle traffic since they’re removed from the roadside, she said.

“The draft ordinance essentially only allows people to sleep on the roadside,” she said. “It pushes people to the roadside and I’m worried that it will increase vulnerability to both vehicle collisions, exhaust inhalation and, because it reduces people’s privacy who are sleeping outside, it’ll have an increase in interpersonal friction and conflict.”

Another member of the public told councilors that his name was Cody and that he owns a white truck and a white trailer and has been staying at the turnout near Rainbow Rock for more than four years. He said he has two jobs. His wife also works in Brookings.

Cody told Councilors that for the past roughly two years, he’s been subject to harassment, including people breaking the windows on his vehicle and shooting a gun at him. He said he’s contacted the police as well as the district attorney about crime he’s seen being committed, but has yet to hear back from them.

Cody also referenced Johnson v. Grants Pass as well as St. Timothy’s recent lawsuit against the city of Brookings over its benevolent meal ordinance.

“Criminalizing homelessness is an issue,” he said. “I’m going to beg you guys tonight. I’m going to beg you with everything that I’ve got not to put in a silly ordinance again [and] shoot yourselves in the foot.”

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