Federal court ruling may affect anti-camping laws

(SEPTEMBER 6, 2018) More than 1,600 people are homeless in Portland, but there are usually only around 1,000 beds in shelters for homeless adults. So many people camp on the streets or in public spaces. Portland has a law that does not allow camping on public property. According to the law, "to camp" means to have a campsite as a temporary place to live. This includes any place where they have any bedding, sleeping bag, or other sleeping mattress, or any stove or fire. People who break this law can receive a fine of up to $100. They can also be sent to prison for up to 30 days.

However, a federal court disagrees with the law. On September 4, 2018, the court said that cities can't punish people for sleeping on the streets if they have nowhere else to go. That is cruel and unusual punishment, said the court.

“As long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize [poor] homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false [idea] they had a choice in the matter,” wrote Judge Marsha Berzon in the court's report. She said that these laws break the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution when they give fines or prison time to homeless individuals for sleeping outdoors on public property when no other shelter is available to them.

Sara Rankin is an associate professor at the Seattle University School of Law. She thinks this new court ruling is a good thing. Cities "cannot enforce laws that have this punishing effect on our most vulnerable neighbors when they are simultaneously not providing safe and legal places for people to go,” she says. “This decision will force cities to provide sufficient safe and legal places ... for people to be.”

Tracy Reeve is the attorney for the city of Portland. She says the new opinion from the federal court will not change what the city does. She says the city interprets the law differently. For example, sleeping on the street one night is different than making it their home. The law "does not prohibit persons from sleeping on public property or public rights-of-way so long as they do not intend to ‘dwell,’ ‘reside,’ or ‘make their home’ in those places," she says.

Some cities already changed their rules. Vancouver, Washington, is an example. According to the city’s website, “it is now legal to camp overnight on most publicly-owned property in Vancouver between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.”