Portland police can ticket and arrest homeless Portlanders who reject a shelter offer as of July 1.

In its latest attempt to dust off a practice deployed by the city for decades, Portland City Council prohibited public sleeping under threat of criminal and civil penalties May 8. Homeless service providers and legal experts said the ordinance and its enforcement system are counterproductive if the city wants to end homelessness and poverty.

“These problems will get worse with local and state politicians continuing to choose police and jails over real solutions,” Sandy Chung, ACLU of Oregon executive director, said. “Portland’s electeds are choosing to impose public sleeping bans and fines instead of creating more temporary shelters and affordable housing.”

Those found in violation of the ordinance are subject to seven days in jail and a $100 fine. While there are no lawsuits against the city for the new ordinance as of July 1, it’s likely to face its day in court eventually as legal advocates gather information about enforcement.

City officials characterize efforts to fine and jail homeless Portlanders as one component of a larger effort to address homelessness, including creating more shelter space.

The city is first targeting unsanctioned encampments it feels present “the greatest health and safety risks,” according to Mayor Ted Wheeler’s spokesperson. City workers will assess encampments and, in some cases, offer shelter to homeless Portlanders living in them. If people refuse offers, workers may refer the encampment to police, who may arrest or cite the homeless Portlanders.

Multnomah County, which oversees all publicly funded emergency congregate shelters, agreed to hold shelter beds open for the city’s enforcement efforts, according to Wheeler’s office.

Offering shelter prior to arrest or citation is an attempt to stay in the good graces of state law, which requires all local ordinances governing survival activities — like sitting, lying or sleeping — to be objectively reasonable. The state law featured prominently in a successful legal challenge to a similar 2023 ban. ORS 195.530 essentially codified Martin v. Boise. The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling found it’s unconstitutional for municipalities with inadequate available shelter space to level civil and criminal penalties against homeless people for sleeping in public.

The city and county can currently offer shelter to roughly one-quarter of the local homeless population, per county data.

The majority conservative U.S. Supreme Court’s June 28 ruling on Grants Pass v. Johnson — decided along political lines — all but eliminated the protections Martin v. Boise afforded homeless people in 9th Circuit states, but ORS 195.530 provides similar protections as long as it’s on the books.

Gov. Tina Kotek, who sponsored the bill creating ORS 195.530 as a state representative in 2021, declined to say if she supported the ordinance or felt it adhered to state law. Her office said she did not discuss the ordinance with Wheeler.

“The Governor believes that no one should have to sleep on the street,” Anca Matica, Kotek’s press secretary, said. “Everyone deserves a safe, permanent home that they can afford. It is incumbent on state and local leaders to address the housing and homelessness crisis in every part of the state with compassion and an outcome-centered approach. She is focused on supporting Oregonians in moving into housing and connecting them with the services they need to prevent homelessness.”

Wheeler’s office said the goal isn’t to arrest more homeless Portlanders but to connect people with services and improve public safety. Homeless service providers, advocates and experts say if that’s the goal, it’s probably going to fail.

A litany of studies and statistics show a criminal justice approach to homelessness is more likely to exacerbate homelessness rather than reduce it. Additionally, recent analyses found approximately half of all Portland arrests are of homeless Portlanders despite making up less than 2% of the city's population, and it’s done little, if anything, to stem the rising tide of homelessness.

How it’s supposed to work

“Enforcement will begin narrowly focused on camps throughout the city that present the greatest health and safety risks,” Cody Bowman, Wheeler’s communications director, told Street Roots on June 26.

Street Services Coordination Center workers will visit and assess encampments the city labels as particularly problematic.

“SSCC will decide whether the camp needs 1) an enhanced outreach effort, 2) no further action, or 3) referral to police,” Bowman said June 28. “SSCC referrals to police will provide context on previous outreach efforts, offers of shelter, and impact to the community. The SSCC will refer camps to PPB Neighborhood Response Team leaders.

“As resources allow, PPB Neighborhood Response Teams will visit referred sites to take appropriate enforcement actions. These teams will have access to SSCC information and resources as needed.”

The ordinance encourages the Multnomah County District Attorney to “divert for assessment, emergency shelter or housing, or other services, in lieu of conviction,” a function the district attorney’s office previously said it’s unable to serve due to a lack of resources.

“The Mayor's office meets regularly with the District Attorney's office,” Bowman said. “We are confident that our priorities are aligned on getting vulnerable populations connected to the appropriate service structure, whether through initial outreach or diversion programs.”

The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.

Musical chairs on the Titanic

Shelter space is scant in Portland.

There are 2,692 county- and city-funded shelter beds, according to the county, and at least 11,153 people experiencing homelessness in Multnomah County. Despite county- and city-funded shelters being 92.5% full each night on average in March, almost half of the homeless population — 5,398 — remain unsheltered.

The current lack of shelter for those seeking it out makes service providers bristle at a particular facet of enforcement that may actually reduce broader shelter availability.

“We have an ongoing agreement with our County partners that sets aside congregate shelter beds for the Mayor Wheeler's Street Services Coordination Center team to utilize during outreach,” a city FAQ on the ordinance says.

It’s unclear the exact number of shelter beds reserved for enforcement, but Portland Commissioner Carmen Rubio said the county holds 100 beds vacant for the SSCC. The Joint Office of Homeless Services did not answer questions at the time of publication.

The city and county holding beds open for the purpose of enforcement makes little sense to Katie O’Brien, Rose Haven executive director.

“It isn't solving anything,” O’Brien said. “It may be breaking up camps that are disruptive, and that they have a desire to break up, which may be valid, it may not be. But by doing that, they're just taking a bed away from somebody else.”

O’Brien said clientele at Rose Haven, a daytime service provider for women, children and gender-diverse people, often lack shelter access despite their best efforts.

“It’s going to create a greater shortage for people like Rose Haven serves, who’ve been seeking and desiring this shelter and would be more successful in the shelter,” O’Brien said. “They want (shelter). They’ve chosen this. They’re looking for this, as opposed to people who are mandated to go in, and they’re not gonna stay.”

Lauren Armony, Sisters of the Road systemic change program director, told Street Roots holding beds open for emergency situations is an existing practice, but holding beds open to enforce the ordinance is counterproductive.

“It’s a bad practice,” Armony said. “I don't think we can count it as available shelter if it is being withheld from people who already want it. You'll be turned away if you wait in line, but if you talk to a cop, maybe they'll take you there?”

Involving police to coerce people into accepting shelter offers hints at elected officials buying into a particular myth Armony and O’Brien encounter — that of the “service-resistant” homeless Portlander. The concept banks on the idea that a significant number of homeless Portlanders choose unsheltered homelessness over available services.

“It’s not what we’re seeing here at Rose Haven,” O’Brien said. “We’re seeing thousands of people a year, hundreds of people a day, who are coming to us not being able to find the necessary shelter for themselves. So that doesn’t align with the people that we know and work with every day. And it isn't to say there isn't a population of people who may not want shelter. But I think that that portion of people is very small compared to the amount of people that we see who can't get in anywhere.”

Even Rubio, who voted in favor of the ordinance, said there are “very few cases of people who consciously refuse to abide by reasonable restrictions.” Rubio argued ordinance enforcement should be tied to shelter availability, and civil and criminal penalties should be a last resort.

“It is my expectation that enforcement starts with assessment and outreach — not by police, but rather by the City’s Street Services Coordination Center; our team that includes outreach staff,” Rubio told Street Roots on June 27. “After that assessment and outreach work — and only when needed — the SSCC will refer camps to the police. When police arrive, Portlanders who do not have access to a reasonable alternative shelter will not be cited or arrested simply for being homeless — but will be asked to abide by some basic rules.”

Rubio said the goal behind holding beds open is to “avoid citations or arrests,” adding, “there will be multiple attempts to offer support before police turn to a citation or an arrest.” Rubio successfully added an amendment to the ordinance requiring police to record and publish data about their interactions regarding the ordinance. Rubio said it’s part of an effort to ensure the city offers services before turning to law enforcement.

Armony said most “service-resistant” people who don’t pursue emergency overnight shelter are actually holding out hope for a more permanent solution or have previously felt betrayed by authority. Armony described “service resistance” as a “myth.”

“Most people are like, ‘I’ll just wait until I get housing,’” Armony said. “But then they just don’t know how to go out and get housing. That’s the issue. It just seems really uninformed and paternalistic to assume that people don't know what's best for them or what they want.

“Most people want housing.”

Trust is built

Trust is a common subject discussed by officials, service providers and people on the streets. Trust in the police, elected officials, shelters and other services is crucial to addressing service resistance to the extent that it exists. Involving police, particularly in the role of enforcing the ordinance, erodes trust, according to Armony and O’Brien.

Armony referenced a refrain used by proponents of the ordinance, the proverbial carrot and the stick, as an errant way of viewing the issue.

“Adding that quote ‘stick’ — if that’s what they want to keep calling it — of jail, I don’t know why that would build any trust in a community,” Armony said. “That only builds fear. All we are seeing is more and more fear.”

In an effort to address that fear, which existed before the ordinance, O’Brien said Rose Haven hosts PPB officers to talk with clientele to make people more comfortable asking police for help. O’Brien said the police operating to coerce people into accepting shelter offers won’t help those efforts.

“We have to build relationships, and we have to build trust,” O’Brien said. “But that isn’t going to happen if police are walking in in an enforcement capacity and mandating things are done.”

Armony said the city should be working to reduce interactions between police and homeless Portlanders, not to increase those interactions. Armony, O’Brien and others fear this creates yet another situation tasking police with acting as social workers.

Who decides what’s reasonable?

Bowman said the city will determine what’s “reasonable alternate shelter” based on individual circumstances.

“The shelter option must be reasonable based on the needs of the individual,” Bowman said. “For example, if a person has a disability, we would work to find an option that accommodates that disability.”

The city positioning its workers and police officers as the arbiters of what’s reasonable for an individual makes service providers uneasy.

“I think it puts the police officers in a really difficult situation as well, where they're feeling compelled to move this person somewhere and making that decision on their behalf when they don't have the training,” O’Brien said. “They don't have the understanding of who this individual is and what all of the challenges and needs they may have.”

O’Brien said what may seem reasonable on paper may be entirely unreasonable to an individual, such as people with trauma who may not feel safe in a congregate shelter, which is the only type of bed the county holds open for the SSCC.

Armony said the total instability of congregate shelters, which only offer a bed for one night and typically require homeless Portlanders to leave all but a couple of bags behind, often makes them unreasonable for the individual.

“People are like, ‘OK, I’m getting this offer of shelter, but that means I generally need to give up most of my possessions or have to limit my number of possessions to get one night in the shelter or two nights in the shelter,’” Armony said. “It’s not an ongoing shelter. It’s not guaranteed, whereas their tent may be a better guarantee of actual shelter and stability.”

O’Brien and Armony stressed the importance of expertise and personal knowledge — as well as individuals’ agency — in determining reasonability. The complex matrix of individuals’ considerations and circumstances makes training for workers assessing reasonability all the more important. Bowman said city outreach workers won’t always accompany PPB officers enforcing the ordinance, further amplifying the importance of PPB training.

The city would not directly answer questions about whether police officers received any training about the specific ordinance, instead saying, “officers at the Portland Police Bureau receive training on working with vulnerable populations and code enforcement.”

“PPB leadership, the SSCC team, the Mayor's Office, and the City Attorney's Office have worked together to establish procedures for enforcement, which will be led by the Portland Police Bureau's Neighborhood Response Team (NRT) after SSCC assessments,” Bowman said. “This relationship is not new — NRT officers and the SSCC team have been collaborating since the SSCC was established by the Mayor’s emergency declaration in 2022 and will continue to work together as enforcement begins.

“NRT members have significant experience working with community members, including this specific population, and are required to be familiar with the SARA method of problem solving, and developing an enhanced knowledge of community resources, as well as generally implementing community policing principles.”

Regardless of the faith the city has in law enforcement’s role in the new ordinance, advocates say the ordinance is little more than a failed response to another failed response.

“Instead of investing in real solutions to homelessness, including more temporary shelters, affordable housing, and support services from social workers and healthcare providers, the City of Portland is choosing to waste taxpayer money on police and jails,” Chung said. “The criminalization approach isn’t new. It has been used for decades for homelessness, poverty, and drug addiction, and it’s resulted in a convergence of crises — a crisis of thousands of arrested Oregonians without access to an attorney in violation of their constitutional rights, a homelessness crisis, and an addiction crisis.”

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