Homeless people can’t be cited, arrested or fined for camping in Grants Pass, Oregon, for now.

A Josephine County circuit court judge has issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit against the city.

The lawsuit, filed in January by Disability Rights Oregon and five homeless plaintiffs, alleges Grants Pass’ treatment of homeless people violates state law, including disability protections.

On Friday afternoon, Judge Sarah McGlaughlin issued an injunction preventing the city from enforcing its public camping laws until it has fulfilled two conditions.

1. Grants Pass has to increase its designated camping sites to the same capacity it previously offered before the city closed an approximately 1.2-acre site in January.
2. The city must ensure all resting sites “provide accessible routes and surfaces” for people with disabilities.

These restrictions don’t apply to either Riverside Park or Reinhardt Volunteer Park.

“The court finds the Plaintiff’s proposed preliminary injunction order is too broad,” Judge McGlaughlin wrote in her Friday order. “A blanket ban on enforcement of the GPMC [Grants Pass Municipal Code] Camping Regulations causes unnecessary harm to the City and the public’s interest in regulating camping on public property.”

The city currently has two sites for homeless people to rest near the police station and City Hall.

Grants Pass only recently got out from under another court injunction, which lasted for four years. It was part of a different lawsuit over Grants Pass’ treatment of homeless people, which the U.S. Supreme Court decided in the city’s favor.

But in January, this new lawsuit was filed, and with it, now another injunction.

Grants Pass sued again over ‘objectively unreasonable’ homeless ordinances

A big question in the current lawsuit is whether the city’s public camping ordinances are “objectively reasonable,” as required by Oregon’s House Bill 3115. But that term isn’t clearly defined.

“What is objectively reasonable as to time, place, and manner is not easily discernible,” McGlaughlin wrote in her order. “Rather it is a continuum of possibilities that balance the various interests of the community (including members who are homeless), and its resources. This court will not insert itself into the middle of that continuum.”

Attorneys for both sides made their cases on Tuesday afternoon during two hours of testimony.

“The spacing that’s required between tents means that it is literally impossible for all of those people to fit into two quarter-acre sites,” Tom Stenson, deputy legal director at Disability Rights Oregon, said. “It is a violation not only of Oregon state law but of the law of physics and the laws of geometry.”

Aaron Hisel, the attorney representing the city of Grants Pass in this case, argued the case should head to a trial.

“We should just proceed with litigation, both sides get their evidence, and come have a trial, and see what a jury says about whether or not it’s objectively reasonable or not. Imperfection does not make it objectively unreasonable,” he said.

On Friday, Stenson said the judge’s decision was a victory for the plaintiffs.

“I believed in our claims all along, but this is a new area of the law, so I was excited,” he said. “Even though I thought our arguments were sound, I thought the law was on our side, but when something is a new area of law, there’s always a little anxiety about it.”

Hisel did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday afternoon.

Jane Vaughan is a reporter with Jefferson Public Radio. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/28/grants-pass-camping-ban-halted/