‘Security Through Obscurity’

In 2021, Oregon lawmakers passed a new law directing cities to stop the arbitrary way they treated unhoused people who camp on public property.

​​The law is intended to compel Oregon cities to comply with two U.S. Court of Appeals rulings that say criminalizing the homeless for sleeping or camping in public can be a violation of their civil rights.

Oregon cities have until July 1 to write “objectively reasonable” rules determining where unhoused people may sit, sleep or keep warm and dry outdoors on public property when they have nowhere else to go.

“This bill will ensure that individuals experiencing homelessness are protected from fines or arrest for sleeping or camping on public property when there are no other options,” Gov. Tina Kotek, then the Oregon House speaker, said in support of the measure.

The Eugene City Council is racing to meet the deadline and will hold a public hearing May 15 about its proposed new anti-camping rules.

But a close examination of the proposed rules raises questions about whether the City Council is running counter to the law’s intentions.

Rather than clarify the rules, advocates for unhoused people say, the City Council’s proposed changes will make the city’s anti-camping rules more convoluted than before. City officials say they will not provide a map that shows where unhoused people can camp.

And rather than lift the threat of punishment, the proposed rules intensify the city’s criminalization of the homeless. People violating the new anti-camping rules in some cases could see steeper fines and — in a new twist — face jail time.

Read more on Eugene Weekly’s website here.