This story was originally published on YachatsNews.com and is used with permission.
Community members turned out in big numbers to ensure homeless people get a fair shake as the Yachats city council moved to pass a camping ordinance that would ban camping on nearly all public property.
More than 30 people attended the second and final public hearing that led up to council unanimously approving the ordinance during its meeting Thursday. Showing compassion for people who find themselves living on the street because of financial, mental health or substance abuse issues exemplified the tenor of the testimony.
Yachats is the last city in Lincoln County to pass a public camping ordinance. Without an ordinance on the books, the city was without recourse to stop people from camping wherever they choose — at the front entrance to the Commons, the Little Log Church Museum, or most recently an ocean-view site near a city wastewater pump station. The ordinance is a carbon copy of those passed in other cities in the county. It takes effect in 30 days.
An Oregon law that went into affect last July requires cities and counties to allow people to sleep and rest on public property — with restrictions — when no shelter beds are accessible.
With few exceptions, members of the public who gave testimony supported the camping ordinance while also expressing specific concerns – foremost of which is that it does not specify where homeless people are allowed to camp.
Mayor Craig Berdie opened the public hearing by acknowledging comments received from approximately 45 community members who attended a March 13 public meeting to discuss the ordinance.
“My understanding from my reading of the summaries is that we can form working groups to accomplish much of what people had suggested in these discussion groups in that it doesn’t really effect the ordinance as much as it does how we handle and treat the houseless within our city limits,” Berdie said.
He then addressed the issue “that comes up frequently” of not telling homeless people where they will be allowed to camp within city limits.
“That was at the advice of our attorney as well as every other city,” Berdie said. “We do not specify specific camping locations. And there’s a practical reason for that, in that if you decide to change it or expand it or anything else, you would have to revise your ordinance.”
One of the suggestions from the community meeting that Berdie supports is forming a work group to help intervene with the homeless before they are asked to leave a campsite. Volunteers could then tell the people where they are allowed to camp as well as where services are offered along with a list of organizations they can contact for help.
The city does have a location in mind but it will require clearing of vegetation to provide more space and some “expenditure” to make it suitable during heavy rains, Berdie said.
“The place we have in mind is not adjacent to any homes,” he said. “We are very constrained as a city, we just simply don’t have much space. We don’t have a lot of public property … so we are very limited.”
Councilor Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessy acknowledged that working with a vulnerable population is a tough situation that needs to be handled with care and compassion to ensure people who find themselves in “bad circumstances” get the help they need. She then added “This isn’t punishment.”
She agreed with Berdie that available public land within the city is limited and that the land under consideration “is quite a hike.”
Councilor Barry Collins called the ordinance the best option at this time.
“The compassion element is easily lost and hard to keep a hold on when you are also considering what I would call our obligation as the council to protect the fragile aspects of our town … we have to have some guidelines, we have to have some rules,” Collins said. “We’d like to do it compassionately but I think action has to be taken.”
Public Testimony
Bob Barrett, pastor of Yachats Community Presbyterian Church which opened a cold weather emergency shelter for the unhoused in February 2023, was the first to speak.
“I think an ordinance is long overdue,” Barrett said. “I think it’s necessary whether it’s mandated by the state or not. And regardless of the outcome of the Supreme Court case, I think it’s an issue that we need to tackle and deal with as a city and beyond an ordinance come up with some solutions to the housing crisis that we along with much of the rest of the country are facing.”
In April, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case out of Grants Pass about how far cities can go to clear homeless camps. The issue is around whether it is legal to fine or arrest people for sleeping outside if there’s no shelter available. A 2018 decision by the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found the city of Boise could not criminalize sleeping on a public street or sidewalk when shelters are not available.
However, Barrett did say he had some issues with the Yachats’ ordinance.
While it limits the number of people that private citizens and other entities including the church can allow to camp – and those must be supervised, which is a good idea, he said – it allows for camping at a public location without supervision in what he characterized as a “kind of Wild West free for all.”
“The other problem I have is it seems to be very prohibitive – you can’t camp here, you can’t camp here, you can’t camp here, you can’t camp here,” he said while thumping a table to punctuate each here. “I appreciate Mayor Berdie’s thoughts about why we wouldn’t necessarily specify a place that you can, but in looking at a map of city properties, I am not sure where they can camp …
“I’m aware of a spot I think is being considered but I think that spot … is problematic,” Barrett said. “As I said, I think we absolutely need an ordinance but it does need to be compassionate and I think there needs to be some answer as to where.”
Barrett also disagreed about the amount of space available within city limits and said it risks being perceived as putting parks over people. He also pointed out homeless people in Yachats most often spread out and camp alone and that conflicts sometimes arise when they are bunched together.
Yachats resident Morgen Brodie broached the subject of the ordinance bumping against landlord tenant laws, as in what if a private citizen allows someone to stay on their property but then that person refuses to leave.
Barrett interjected to say that very thing happened at the church. And that when they contacted the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office “we were essentially told that because we had allowed them to stay there so long, they had established residency and we would have to go through the courts to seek eviction.”
One man who is not a resident of Yachats, said he felt the no camping signs already posted in certain places around town could be expanded and would serve the purpose of the ordinance until the Supreme Court makes its decision.
Dayna Capron of Yachats, who connected to the meeting online from her car during her lunch break, said she was not necessarily opposed to the ordinance but felt it did not meet parameters determined by the state to provide sanitary solutions or allocate public resources by naming where people can camp.
Capron cited the 9th Circuit ruling in adding that “people cannot be punished for sleeping on public property without an adequate alternative.” She added that 60 percent of Americans say they have less than $500 to spare for an unexpected event.
“This ordinance truly feels rushed and unfinished,” she said. “I know we need an ordinance. But there are plenty of examples from cities and organizations that are leading the way to better outcomes for all.”
“I will say that this is modeled after multiple other cities,” Berdie said. “We’ve been working on this since last July so it’s hardly rushed. It has been reviewed by our attorney multiple times. So we have given it due consideration. I appreciate your concerns. We are not solving homelessness — we are solving camping.”
Before the council approved the ordinance, Berdie reiterated the basic need for it is to be able to call the sheriff when situations arise.
“And the sheriff’s office by the way is very compassionate, has offered to bring people to the shelters, to the mental health care units, they don’t come in and beat the people up here,” Berdie said. “This is Lincoln County, we do take care of people. We do offer them services when the sheriff comes down.”
He added it is a “wonderful idea” to have a citizens group intervene before it comes to that but that “we do need something as a backup and that is the intent of this ordinance.”