Portland Mayor's new proposed camping ban gets two amendments added, will move to second hearing

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — After much debate and public testimony, two amendments have been formally adopted by Portland City Council for Mayor Ted Wheeler's proposed camping ban going forward, with a set of amendments brought by Commissioner Rene Gonzalez failing to pass enough votes to join them.

The proposed camping ban ordinance as a whole, with those new amendments, hasn't been fully adopted yet. However, Wednesday's City Council Meeting does set the stage for an eventual vote with a second hearing.

This comes as a high-profile Supreme Court case involving Grants Pass about the same topic is in the public eye. In the past, a separate court previously blocked Portland’s last attempt to create a camping ban after people sued the city saying the ordinance was too restrictive.

After Portland’s plans were thwarted, the city attorney worked with lawyers on both sides, including the group that filed the lawsuit and attorneys who represented people who said encampments negatively impacted those with disabilities. 

Mayor Ted Wheeler said he hopes this new proposed ordinance strikes the right balance. However, not every commissioner agreed with the revised proposed camping ban as written.

The new proposal would get rid of the daytime camping ban that was in last year’s proposal. It also eschews camping parameters around schools, construction sites and safe rest villages, though the mayor has created separate rules around shelter spaces and schools. 

The old proposal said the restrictions don’t apply to someone who is involuntarily homeless. However, this new proposal says camping is prohibited when there is reasonable access to shelter.  

Laura Golino de Lovato, the executive director of Northwest Pilot Project, said the new proposed camping ban represents “forward progress.”

“Moving towards a more open conversation about how criminalizing homelessness does not solve homelessness,” de Lovato said. 

Fines of up to $100 and 7 days in jail are the proposed consequences for people camping in public right of ways, those blocking private property, people who have active fires and those with trash outside of tents.  

Commissioner Rene Gonzalez said he wants to get rid of the diversion program component in the Mayor’s proposal. What’s more, he wants another amendment specifying that only the mayor or the mayor’s designee can set the policy around camping restrictions.

Just before the council meeting began, Gonzalez added a third amendment that would get rid of the criminal penalties of jail time but increase the civil penalty of no more than $1,000. None of Gonzaelez's three amendments ended up passing.

"I am proposing amendment -- amended approach to allow Portland’s executive branch the tools they need to confront encampments to comply with relevant federal rulings and state laws and allow flexibility in a changing legal environment," Gonzalez said.

The amendment would have required a public outreach process but maintains that only the mayor or the mayor's designee can set policy.

Kaia Sand, the executive director of Street Roots, said she believes Gonzalez’s proposal about narrowing the scope of who can set the camping restriction policies in the city amounts to “a power play to basically draw the curtain back and hide the decision-making.”

“Could be perceived as a little bit anti-democratic or a lot anti-democratic,” de Lovato added.

In terms of how “reasonable access to shelter” is defined, the mayor’s office said it means if a person can access a bed. However, that doesn’t address whether or not there are enough shelter beds in the community, a point of concern for Sand.

“If we had that sense of urgency that they have toward all of these, you know, restrictions, if they had that sense of urgency toward people actually having safe, stable places to live, we'd be in a much better place,” Sand said. 

When Gonzalez's amendments faced a vote by his fellow commissioners, Wheeler, Commissioner Carmen Rubio and Commissioner Mingus Mapps all voted "no." However, Commissioner Dan Ryan joined Gonzalez in "Aye" for his amendments.

Other than that, all of the commissioners unanimously adopted Rubio's amendment for tasking the Portland Police Bureau to track data of their enforcement of the measure and report it to city council. They also unanimously voted for Mapps' amendment to establish a Public Environment Management Office that reports to the mayor.

Mayor Wheeler said he wants whatever ordinance is passed to go into effect “immediately.”

Now that amendments have been voted on for the proposed camping ban, it will now move forward at city council to a second hearing. Should the now-amended camping ban be formally adopted, the soonest it could be implemented would be a few weeks from now.