As Supreme Court decision looms, Grants Pass remains 'stuck' on homelessness
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (KOIN) -- In the biggest community of picturesque Josephine County in southern Oregon, nearly everyone is waiting on a decision set to come 2,800 miles away in Washington D.C.
Before month’s end, and perhaps as soon as Thursday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to make a landmark ruling on homelessness, and what local municipalities can do to control it.
The larger legal question has been around for years, but the actual case in front of the highest court involves Grants Pass and efforts to impose fines or citations on people who violate its local camping restrictions.
KOIN 6 has been tracking the story for months, and for local homeowners like Randy Morrison, a decision can’t come soon enough.
"This is a historical area. My house is 100 years old," he said. “Every day I go to work, it's right there. I hear it on a regular basis, some of the ones on drugs or what have you or yelling on the street corner about anything and everything."
Morrison lives about 50 yards away from a small park where a homeless encampment popped up months ago. His front porch now has a security camera warning sign.
"I feel for them but you don’t know who’s in the situation because they want to be? Who doesn't give a crap about life? Or someone who's taxed out of their home, on a fixed income, and taxed out of their home. That happens, too," he said.
The nuance of the crisis isn’t lost on most of the 40,000 who call the area home, especially the city’s mayor.
Sara Bristol has only been in office a few years but says her tenure has been dominated by the encampments taking over city parks.
"When this court case is pending, we've had to allow people to live in all our city parks," said Bristol. “Grants Pass has really been stuck.”
The case predates her election, but effectively the town is unable to enforce local fines or legal consequences on illegal camping as the Supreme Court weighs whether such restrictions are an 8th Amendment violation, if people have nowhere else to sleep.
Grants Pass has very little shelter space, so no matter the opinion Bristol says the larger issue won’t simply disappear.
"We will still have to allow people to be somewhere, but unfortunately even though we've tried to get shelters we don't have adequate shelter space for our unhoused population," she said.
One woman KOIN 6 found in the popular Riverside Park was living out of her car, with her dog and tent stationed nearby.
"Everyone has a different reason for being here. Cost of living is one of them. I got stuck here," she said. “You got the homeless, the hopeless, and it’s hard to tell the difference.”
Cassy Leach, a nurse and the driving force behind a local advocacy group MINT, says they’re getting ready to retrofit an old furniture and bargain building as an outreach center.
"We’ll focus on hygiene, clothes, a place to store food, or a way to get their mail frequently," she said. “People are done. We're sick of nothing happening, whether you want to support the homeless or run them out of town.”
The organization recently received tentative approval for building 15 “tiny” homes on the back of the property, once everything is updated.
"They're hard-covered buildings with electricity and power," Leach said.
Still, in a community with hundreds of unhoused, there’s a desperate need for a larger-scale shelter.
"We still don't have an urban campground; we still don't have a low barrier shelter," said Mayor Bristol.
A grassroots effort, called "Park Watch," has emerged as a big voice for clearing out most of the city’s parks by holding rallies and clean-up events.
Morrison says he wants to see some basis of local control restored.
It’ll allow local families to enjoy the city’s beautiful greenspace, while improving the view from his front porch.
“I can count the tents nightly,” he said.