Some Democrats call for changes to homeless camping laws as 'uncertainty' follows Supreme Court ruling

In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that cities can ban homeless encampments, at least two Oregon Democrats have signaled their desire to overturn a 2021 state law limiting municipalities' ability to ban camping on public property.

“Our communities deserve safe, clean streets, not only for residents but also for the businesses that drive our economy,” state Rep. Mark Meek said in a statement, according to the Portland Tribune. “We must reform restrictive laws … so local communities can maintain public safety.”

A homeless man tries to keep a fire going in the rain at a park in Salem, Oregon. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)

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Last week, the Supreme Court overturned, by a 6-3 vote, a 9th Circuit decision that had held that laws prohibiting homeless people from sleeping in parks and on sidewalks violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The case originated in Grants Pass, Oregon, and West Coast leaders across the political spectrum said it was crippling efforts to clean up the streets.

The new ruling gives cities more options as they battle a homelessness epidemic, but in Oregon, a separate state law could still tie officials' hands.

“Cities have received so many different and competing directives right now that there is a lot of uncertainty,” state Rep. Paul Evans said, according to OPB.

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Oregon lawmakers have passed a bill in 2021, which 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 KotekA Democrat who is now governor of Oregon, defended the law.

According to OPB, Meek and Evans are among only three Democrats still in office who voted against the bill in 2021. After the Supreme Court decision, they joined Republican minority leaders in calling for a change to the law, increasing the likelihood that state lawmakers could take up the issue when they reconvene early next year.

But they would need to get buy-in from more members of their own party, and the Democratic chairman of the House Housing and Homelessness Committee told OPB that the existing law “strikes a good balance” for cities and the homeless.

Leaders like Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler disagree, saying the word “reasonable” is too subjective.

A judge has blocked Portland's 2023 ordinance banning daytime camping in front of businesses or on sidewalks. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)

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Under state law, a judge indefinitely barred Portland from enforcing a 2023 ordinance that prohibits people from blocking access to businesses or sidewalks with tents from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“The term ‘reasonable’ has not been defined by the legislature, and that’s something I would ask them to do if they want to keep certain time, place and manner restrictions in place — they have to define reasonable because the court refused to do that,” Wheeler told KGW. “We thought we had defined reasonable.”

A watered-down version of Portland's ordinance went into effect this week, but law professor Tung Yin told KOIN 6 News he expects it will be challenged again under state law.

Homeless advocates have already vowed to do just that if Oregon cities break their rules.

“We intend to use this law, which is more important than ever, to protect homeless people in the state of Oregon,” Ed Johnson, lead attorney in the Grants Pass case, said at a news conference after the Supreme Court decision.

Tents cover an open space near the Steel Bridge in Portland, Oregon, on July 7, 2023. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)

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If lawmakers don't revise the law, Republican attorney general candidate Will Lathrop said “legalized tent cities” will remain and act as a magnet for more homeless people.

“Not only will Oregon not be able to address the widespread homelessness crisis in our state — as other states begin to clean up their streets — but I fear we will see an influx of homeless populations flowing into Oregon where there is no accountability,” he said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.