Crisis in the Northwest: City's battle against homelessness could have dire effects for the nation

We can see the harmful effects of the 9th Circuit’s decisions up and down the West Coast as cities have become overrun by encampment. It is completely incorrect when people say that this case and this decision somehow limits what cities can do to regulate encampments, to sweep camps, to move camps. It’s just manipulative hogwash. What’s going on at the West Coast is what’s coming to a neighborhood near you. My name’s Ed Johnson and I’m the director of Litigation at the Oregon Law Center. This case originated in our Grants Pass office in 2017. We started to hear from people in the community who were living outside, who were being awakened in the middle of the night by the police and told essentially there was no, no place else, no place at all for them to sleep in the city. And then we also heard that people were getting ticketed and arrested and jailed. And the Federal District Court in Medford found in our favor that criminalizing someone for living outside and trying to stay warm and dry with a blanket violates the cruel and unusual punishments clause of the 8th Amendment. The 9th Circuit agreed with the District Court and upheld that the city petition to the Supreme Court to hear the case. And the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case back in January. Hi, my name is DNA Evangelist. I’ll be arguing for Grants Pass in Grants Pass versus Johnson. It’s an incredibly important case that will have nationwide ramifications on how cities are able to address homelessness. The 9th Circuit held that cities are not allowed to regulate camping in their jurisdictions until they have enough shelter for everyone. That has made it impossible for cities to address very unsafe and unhealthy conditions, and to get people the help that they so desperately need. Now we’ve seen the phenomenon of people refusing offers of help and services. That’s unacceptable. It’s unacceptable to leave people in dangerous encampments. It’s unacceptable as a society for us to continue to condone this sort of human suffering. And we’ve seen in Portland and Seattle that cities have to grapple with very dangerous conditions at the same time as they are working on long term solutions to end homelessness. It is completely incorrect when people say that this case and this decision somehow limits what cities can do to regulate encampments, to sweep camps, to move camps. There’s nothing in the 9th Circuit decision that prohibits a city from saying no tents, for example. The only thing that cities can’t do is the one thing that Grants Pass has done and what and wants to continue to do. And that is to make it unlawful for people to sleep outside with a blanket when they have nowhere else to go. To cover themselves with a blanket so that they don’t die of hypothermia on every inch of city land 24 hours a day, for obvious reasons. Our assertion is that that’s cruel and it’s unusual because that kind of sweeping 24 hour a day, every inch of public land banishment and punishment is very uncommon. And the rule in this case doesn’t apply when there is available shelter space. So if someone is offered shelter and they decline it, they could still be ticketed and arrested. Under this decision In Grants Pass, there is no homeless shelter. There are no available shelter beds for people. And so that issue hasn’t hasn’t come up in Grants Pass itself. What he’s saying is, is just it’s just manipulative. Hogwash. Hi, my name is Brian Boteller. I’m the executive director of the Grants Pass Gospel Rescue mission. I have been at less than half full since 2020. Are there need for other services? Yes, there are need for other services. Is there enough shelter beds? Yeah, there’s enough shelter beds. There’s enough shelter beds for the folks that want to leave homelessness. I guarantee you all those folks that are there in the park or they’re in the parks do not all want to leave homelessness. I’m Bruce Murray. I’m a medical doctor here in Grants Pass. I’ve lived in the community for more than 35 years, practicing physician now semi retired and doing work with those that are homeless and their medical needs in Josephine County in Southern Oregon. So a lot of thermal injuries, hypothermia, trench foot were literally frozen limbs that required amputation. So living outside in tents is not a joy and I think that’s one of the myths is, is people choose to do to live this lifestyle. They’re not the ones that I see. We’re fortunate that we have been able to eke out space in four parts here in Grants Pass where we can see people, we can arrange follow up, we can arrange visits afterwards. But we travel as a team with behavioral specialist, mental health specialist as well as medical team to go out there and and we we are, we can do it all within a relatively small centralized area outside of Grants Pass. It’s heavily wooded and mountainous and not very hospitable. The propensity that got to cook on something we we we are in a Fire Zone where every August we burn somewhere in Oregon significantly. I worry that access to care, which has been my theme, is going to be much more difficult access to hygiene and safety. It’s going to be much more difficult to to ask to assure if the they criminalize living in parks. We don’t have any alternative. It’s not like they have anywhere else to go. It’s all framed like our problem is, you know, we’re upset with people sleeping in parks. It doesn’t cost us 10s of thousands of dollars every year to clean up after sleeping in our parks. We’re not afraid of our children playing in the playground accidentally getting poked by someone’s pillow. It’s only cities within the 9th Circuit now that are subject to this rule that’s made it impossible and has caused widespread paralysis. And we can see the harmful effects of the 9th Circuit’s decisions up and down the West Coast as cities have become overrun by encampments and people who need help are not getting it. It is effectively wrecked a state’s ability to regulate their own property and and within within the city to tell them what they can and can’t do inside the public spaces in their community and I hope that they will overturn that. If they don’t, what will happen is whatever’s going on on the West Coast and I hope that the rest of the nation looks at it. What’s going on at the West Coast is what’s coming to a neighborhood near you.