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A OREGON JUDGE He has issued a preliminary judicial order that blocks a rural city in the center of a ruling of the United States Supreme Court on homeless camps to enforce camp restrictions unless certain conditions are met.
The judge of the Circuit Court of the County of Josephine, Sarah McGlaughl, ruled on Friday that the city of subsidies passes must increase the capacity in the places that the city approved to camp and ensure that the sites are physically accessible for people with disabilities.
If the city does not meet these conditions, the order of the judge prohibits the city from citing, arresting or fine people for camping in public properties. It also prevents the city from forcing people to leave the camps, remove camps that are not clearly abandoned or prohibit camping in most municipal parks.
The city can still enforce the rules that prohibit sleeping on sidewalks and streets or in alleys and doors.
With Fruitdale primary school in the background, a homeless man adjusts his shoes in Fruitdale Park, on March 23, 2024, in Grants Pass, Oregon. (AP)
Mayor Clint Scherf told Associated Press that he was “discouraged” by the judge’s order. The city’s information coordinator Mike Zacchino, told The Outlet that the city was “reviewing all aspects to ensure that we make the best decision for our community.”
The lawsuit that ignited the case, presented by the Disability Rights of Oregon, argued that the city was discriminating against people with disabilities and violating a state law that requires that the cities camp regulations were “objectively reasonable.” Five homeless people in grants pass among the plaintiffs.
Grants Pass has fought for years to handle the crisis of the lack of housing and has become symbolic of the national debate on how to respond to the issue. Many of the city parks, in particular, saw camps affected by the use of drugs and garbage.
Fremont, California, another city that seeks to deal with the crisis of the lack of housing, approved one of the most strict anti-homless camp ordinances in the nation last month, prohibits camping in any public property and submitting any person “that causes, allow, help, establish or hide” camps at a fine of $ 1,000 or up to six months in jail.
Last summer, the Supreme Court of the United States He declared in a case presented by the city that communities can prohibit sleeping outside and good people who violate the ban, even when there are not enough refuge beds.
A volunteer clings to a wheelchair while helping Max Hartfelt to his store after relocating him from one park to another on Saturday, March 23, 2024 in Grants Pass, Oregon. (AP)
The ruling of the Supreme Court revoked a Appeals Court decision that camp prohibitions were enforced when the refuge space is insufficient equivalent to cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment of the United States Constitution.
After the ruling of the Superior Court, the subsidies pass a prohibited camp in all the properties of the city, except the sites designated by the City Council, which established two locations for the hundreds of homeless people in an effort to take them out of the parks.
After taking office this year, the new mayor and the new council members moved to close the largest of the two sites, which housed approximately 120 tents, the lawsuit said. The hours of operation of the smallest site were also reduced between 5 pm and 7 am
Both sites were often full of people, with bad conditions and inaccessible for people with disabilities due to the gravel, according to the complaint.
“It is inconceivable for me to allow people to live there,” said the city council member, Indra Nicholas, before the vote to close the largest site.
The vehicles drive Rogue River Highway while the light shines in the area on March 23, 2024, in Grants Pass, Oregon. (AP)
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After the demand was filed, the city reopened a second smaller place and extended the time that people could remain in the place four days.
The McGlaughin order establishes that the city must increase the capacity of what it was before the largest site was closed.
Tom Stenson, Deputy Legal Director of Oregon Disability Rights, praised the ruling.
“This is not a radical solution. The court basically says: ‘returns to the amount of space and places for homeless people you had only three months ago,” said Associated Press.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
