This story was originally published by the Roseburg News-Review and is used with permission.
The Roseburg City Council’s inaugural work session on an urban campground produced at least one idea. The council asked the city staff to generate an inventory of property the city already owns.
The rest of the meeting Monday evening was spent going back over the details and challenges of the topic. City staff took the opportunity to familiarize the council with the efforts and problems experienced the past few years.
The work study was suggested by the council after the city’s last attempt at designating an urban campground. City staff worked on the purchase of property in the southgate area for that purpose, only to have the council back out of the purchase in a city council meeting.
The Umpqua Greenway
Much of Monday’s discussion was spent on the greenway, a wide strip of city-owned land between the river and the railroad tracks, west of Northeast Stephens Street and north of its intersection with Northeast Diamond Lake Boulevard.
That’s the spot of the largest concentration of campsites. It’s also just north of Deer Creek Park, where the tents move temporarily when they have been posted for removal and a camp clean-up.
The council has spoken in the past about how the city has “sacrificed” that area, as it has a bicycle path running through it. According to the current council, at least one former councilor suggested fencing it in as the official urban campground.
Monday night, councilor Ellen Porter differentiated the greenway from formal attempts at designating an urban campground, because the neighbors of the Umpqua Greenway never had an opportunity to give testimony about the unofficial campground.
“We just kind of dumped it on them,” said Porter. “We’ve concentrated them there. It’s a result of decisions made.”
One of those decisions, however, was the city’s designation of the time, place and manner (TPM) of urban camping.
The city’s TPM maps clearly identify the issue. The prohibited camping areas include proximity to the river and to the bicycle path. As the railroad tracks are private property, and always subject to trespassing charges, the Umpqua Greenway is by far the largest strip of city-owned land in which multiple tents can fit.
The legislative considerations
City Manager Nikki Messenger summarized House Bill 3115 of the 2021 Oregon legislature, which was a result of the federal court decisions involving the cities of Boise and Grants Pass. According to Messenger, there is an effort to repeal the bill in Salem.
House Bill 3115, however, is a succinct bill which requires only that city ordinances be “objectively reasonable” as to the time, place and manner in which urban camping by unhoused people is prohibited.
The state legislation, and the federal court decisions, stemmed from the human right to sleep and the legal right to protect oneself from the elements. Keeping those rights possible, cities are otherwise allowed to pass and enforce their own ordinances on prohibited camping.
Another legislative topic involved liability. The council and staff discussed the subject of whether a city-owned or tacitly-approved urban campground would be managed, and by whom.
Messenger told the council there is also legislation being proposed which would limit the liability of cities regarding events that occur in their urban campgrounds. However, said Messenger, that legislation may not become law and, even if it does, it would not be in effect until late next year at the earliest.
Is enforcement working yet?
Bernie Woodard, managing member of Elk Island Trading Group, LLC, shared with The News-Review a complaint he filed with the city. Woodard and his group have developed three urban campgrounds, have an eye on a fourth and are now working with Grants Pass on developing a large urban camp there.
One of Woodard’s written complaints was a lack of enforcement, particularly in the Umpqua Greenway. By the letter of the TPM ordinance, even in the Umpqua Greenway unhoused campers are prohibited from leaving their tents up during the day.
The daily police logs confirm that officers are not issuing citations in the Umpqua Greenway during the day, unless those campsites are too close to the river or bicycle path.
The police logs also confirm, however, that the department is being hyperaggressive everywhere else. Officers are checking campsites nightly in Stewart Park, Gaddis Park and Riverfront Park. In the greenway, they make daily inspections of the prohibited areas.
Monday’s meeting gave Chief Gary Klopfenstein yet another opportunity to describe enforcement to the city council. So many citations have been issued, he confirmed, that dozens of people have reached the level of criminal penalties after two convictions for violations; the third becomes a crime.
The problem, he reminded the council, was that an arrest for that third violation requires that police seize the campsite and valued possessions for safekeeping, and that requires the police to have the necessary personnel and equipment on hand.
Next steps in the process
Councilors Ellen Porter and Tom Michalek reminded the council that the city’s recent efforts to improve off-street parking have identified a couple city-owned parking lots that aren’t being used. Meanwhile, Grants Pass set up their urban campgrounds on city-owned lots.
“I think that hardest part of the challenge is, if you look at the ones at The Point (Deer Creek Park), and ask how many of them want help, you probably get very few of them say they want help,” said Mayor Larry Rich, in response to a discussion about social resources and the role of the city’s Homeless Commission.
“You ever hear them say, ‘I don’t want to follow any rules,’’’ Rich asked, regarding the unhoused who may want help but only under certain conditions.
Councilor Zack Weiss added, “We don’t have an answer, and we’re not going to find a silver bullet; everything’s on the table, until it’s not.”
