West
Some Democrats call for changes to homeless camping laws as 'uncertainty' follows Supreme Court ruling
On the heels of the Supreme Court ruling that cities can outlaw homeless camps, at least two Oregon Democrats have signaled a desire to roll back a 2021 state law limiting municipalities’ ability to ban camping on public property.
“Our communities deserve streets that are safe and clean, not only for residents but also for businesses that drive our economy,” state Sen. Mark Meek said in a statement, according to the Portland Tribune. “We must reform restrictive laws… so that local communities can maintain public safety.”
A homeless man attempts to keep a fire going in the rain in a park in Salem, Oregon. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
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In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court last week overturned a 9th Circuit ruling that found laws banning homeless people from sleeping in parks and on sidewalks violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments. That case originated in Grants Pass, Oregon, and West Coast leaders across the political spectrum said it hamstrung efforts to clean up streets.
The new ruling gives cities more options as they grapple with an unsheltered homelessness epidemic, but in Oregon, a separate state law could still tie officials’ hands.
“Cities right now have been given so many different competing guidelines that there is a significant amount of uncertainty,” state Rep. Paul Evans said, according to OPB.
CRISIS IN THE NORTHWEST: INSIDE ONE OF OREGON’S LARGEST HOMELESS CAMPS WITH A FORMER DRUG DEALER
Oregon lawmakers passed a bill in 2021 that requires local ordinances regulating sitting, lying and sleeping on public property to be “objectively reasonable as to time, place and manner.” Then-House Speaker Tina Kotek, a Democrat who is now Oregon’s governor, championed the law.
Meek and Evans are among just three Democrats still serving who voted against the bill in 2021, OPB reported. After the Supreme Court’s ruling, they joined Republican minority leaders in calling for a change to the law, raising the likelihood that state lawmakers could take up the issue when they reconvene early next year.
But they’d have to get more of their own party on board, and the Democratic chair of the House Housing and Homelessness Committee told OPB the existing law “struck a good balance” for cities and homeless people.
Leaders like Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler disagree, arguing the word “reasonable” is too subjective.
A judge blocked Portland’s 2023 ordinance banning daytime camping in front of businesses or on sidewalks. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
SPENDING ON HOMELESSNESS SPIKES TO A ‘SHOCKING’ AMOUNT IN PORTLAND METRO AREA
Under the state law, a judge indefinitely barred Portland from enforcing a 2023 ordinance banning people from blocking access to businesses or sidewalks with tents from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
“The term ‘reasonable’ hasn’t been defined by the legislature, and that is one thing that I would request that they do if they want to keep some time, place and manner restrictions in place — they have to define reasonable because the court refused to do it,” Wheeler told KGW. “We thought we defined reasonable.”
A watered-down version of Portland’s ordinance took effect this week, but law professor Tung Yin told KOIN 6 News he expects it to be challenged again under the state law.
Advocates for homeless people have already promised to do just that if Oregon cities overstep.
“We intend to use that law, which is more important than ever, to protect homeless people in the state of Oregon,” Ed Johnson, lead counsel on the Grants Pass case, said in a news conference after the SCOTUS ruling.
Tents cover an open space near the Steel Bridge in Portland, Oregon, on July 7, 2023. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
If the legislature doesn’t revisit the law, Republican attorney general candidate Will Lathrop said “legalized tent cities” will remain, and act as a magnet for other homeless people.
“Not only will Oregon be unable to address our state’s widespread homelessness crisis — as other states start cleaning up their streets — I fear that we will see an influx of homeless populations flooding to Oregon where there is no accountability,” he said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.
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LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Conservation groups are pushing back against a new state mapping tool that identifies federal lands potentially available for development in Nevada.
The governor’s office, in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management Nevada, unveiled the interactive map this week to make it easier to find federal land that may be available for development throughout the state and in the Las Vegas Valley.
“It is shocking to look at the map and see how many lands could potentially be sold off,” said Olivia Tanager, executive director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter.
Tanager said she was surprised at how many federal lands were identified for disposal when she first looked at the map.
“Places like Red Rock and Sloan Canyon in Southern Nevada are what draw people to live in Southern Nevada. We cannot continue to develop right up onto the boundaries or perhaps even in these precious places,” Tanager said.
The conservation group says the mapping tool is the latest effort to treat Nevada’s public lands as a real estate inventory rather than a shared public resource.
“We know that a lot of these areas are environmentally sensitive. We know that there are endangered species on these lands,” Tanager said.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unveils interactive tool mapping federal lands available for possible development, other uses
Housing concerns
Lawmakers have proposed using federal lands to create more affordable housing. Several areas at the edges of the Vegas Valley have been identified for potential development on the mapping tool. Tanager said she does not see that as a viable solution.
“The areas on the outskirts or far outside of existing urban areas are wholly inappropriate for affordable housing. Housing that is located that far away from services will never be truly affordable,” Tanager said. “As folks have to live further and further away from resources like schools and grocery stores, transportation costs go up substantially.”
The conservation group says the valley should fill in open lots and build upward within the existing urban core instead of building outward.
“We know that sprawl and developing on the outskirts of the valley worsens air quality as well from increased transportation,” Tanager said. “We know that sprawl is incredibly water-intensive. The further out you build, the harder it is to recapture that water.”
The Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter says treating federal lands as disposable assets could set a dangerous precedent that accelerates privatization efforts and undermines the principle that public lands should remain in public hands for future generations.
Approximately 85% of Nevada’s total land area is owned by the federal government.
The state says the tool is designed to bolster information sharing about federal lands. The mapping tool is available here.
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