Washington County adopts time, place, manner homeless camp rules

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Washington County adopted new public camping rules on Tuesday, limiting the time, place and manner that people can camp on public property in unincorporated areas of the county.

The Washington County Board of Commissioners adopted Ordinance 896 in order to comply with House Bill 3115, which requires jurisdictions to regulate when, where and how people facing homelessness are allowed to sleep on public property when no shelter options are available.

Before adopting the ordinance, Washington County says it did not have a public camping ordinance and had limited services to address health and safety needs in homeless camps.

Under the ordinance, homeless camps are banned on county property when shelter is available, according to the most recent draft ordinance from an April 4, 2023 work session.

The ordinance clarifies that sitting or sleeping in county buildings or in county parking lots is not banned as long as it does not constitute camping, obstruct right-of-way or access to county buildings or lots.

For time regulations, the ordinance says people cannot camp on county property for more than five days in a row.

For place regulations, the ordinance says camps are not allowed at any time in county buildings, county parking lots, tax-foreclosed properties, natural areas or within 500 feet of shelters, schools and daycares.

In terms of manner restrictions, camps are limited to only having necessary materials to “protect an individual from the elements,” according to the ordinance.

The ordinance limits other items within a camp to one bicycle per camper and excludes campers from having furniture, scrap metal, lumber, more than one propane tank or other combustible materials. Open flames and fires are allowed at the camps on a case-by-case basis for cooking or keeping warm.

Additionally, the camps are limited to one structure per person or household and cannot be larger than 144 feet per camp. The ordinance furthers that camps cannot have more than 100 gallons of garbage or hazardous materials in an uncontained manner. The county also claims it will clean abandoned sites as needed.

The county says enforcement officers will be in charge of making sure campers are following the ordinance and will also be tasked with determining shelter capacity. Officers may enforce a Class D civil infraction in the minimum amount, a citation or arrest for second-degree criminal trespass.

According to the county, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office is supportive of the ordinance, which will be implemented 30 days after its approval.

“I am proud to see the programs that end homelessness including rental assistance, shelter and housing case management, are up and running here in Washington County. By regulating public camping, we provide clarity for our partners and unhoused residents while ensuring unsheltered people in our community are quickly connected with existing services,” Washington County Chair Kathryn Harrington said in a statement.

With the new ordinance in play, the county says it will sunset its Encampment Management Program and noted that the ordinance will not be the “sole mechanism for addressing homelessness.”

The county stated that staff members are planning on checking in with community members, outreach workers and law enforcement in six months as adjustments to the ordinance may be needed.

Before adopting the ordinance, the Washington County Encampment Management Program closed the largest camp in an unincorporated area of the county off of Highway 47 near Forest Grove in June, officials said. The county stated that shelter operators and law enforcement were able to offer all campers at that site with shelter and housing options.

It is not clear how many campers were camping at the Highway 47 location.

Washington County says it previously had limited shelter options in 2021 to offering 426 shelter beds across the county. The county also reports that it helped nearly 1,300 people transition from homelessness to long-term housing.

The county says in 2022, it streamlined its outreach approach and contracts with 10 outreach providers who coordinate with law enforcement and shelters.