City Commissioners put one of Portland's most contentious laws on life support in May, thwarting a June 15 burial some homeless and civil rights advocates had hoped for.
That's when the sit/lie ordinance — technically known as the Obstructions as Nuisances Ordinances — was set to sunset, but the council voted on May 31 to extend it six months until November. The law dictates where and when people can sit, lean or lie on the city's public sidewalks downtown, placing people experiencing homelessness in its crosshairs.
Meanwhile, civic leaders have launched a new, more far-reaching plan to address street activities citywide.
The new initiative called SAFE — Street Access for Everyone — was approved by the City Council at its May 24 meeting, creating a working group and a series of public forums to talk about a group of violations labeled "street disorders." The initiative is a project of Mayor Tom Potter in an effort to find city-wide solutions to such problems as public drinking, aggressive panhandling, intimidation and harassment and sidewalk obstruction.
At the meeting, Potter spoke of the widely accepted conclusion on the city's current obstruction as nuisances ordinance — that it has not been effective in curbing street disorders.
"It only addresses the behaviors, rather than the causes," Potter said. "It only focuses on the downtown area. It is cumbersome and too complicated to be used effectively."
Most importantly, he said, it doesn't focus on intervention efforts to address street disorders, or address the root causes, "like the fact that someone sleeping on the streets needs a home and services, not necessarily a citation," Potter said.
The SAFE working group is still being assembled, but Maria Rubio, the mayor's policy manager for public safety and security, has said it will be a mix of people with business, law enforcement and social-service connections.
"The goal is to take a broad look at street disorder issues in business districts across the city as opposed to just downtown as the current ordinance exists," Rubio told the council.
Chief Rosie Sizer told city councilmen that over the course of her experience in the Portland Police Bureau, she has received hundreds of calls and complaints about a feeling of a lack of safety on the streets, coming from business owners and homeless people alike.
"The police bureau's role in enforcement is very important in terms of setting the tone to increase the sense of order and stability for all people regardless of their economic class," Sizer told the commissioners. "I am highly encouraged by this effort because it seeks to identify solutions that are beyond the parameters of law enforcement."
One example of these solutions might be public restrooms, Sizer said after the meeting. That's one area that could improve the livability for people who live in the city and for visitors.
"Hopefully smart and creative people will be able to come up with a spectrum of things," Sizer said. "And it gets everybody talking at the same table, and I think in terms of transparency and building relationships and trying to find common ground, I think that's really key."
The current sit/lie ordinance has a dubious history, accruing judgments from two courts that call it unconstitutional. A recent case in an Oregon appeals court ruled that the law was pre-empted by state law, which some interpret to mean it's invalid.
"There are a lot of ways that the previous ordinance was enforced that truly violated people's rights and it had severe impacts on people who happen to be homeless," said Dan Newth, a homeless advocate with experience with homelessness in Portland. Newth said he wants the city to respect the experience and lessons learned from the current Obstructions as Nuisances ordinance, now three pages long.
Andrea Meyer, with the Oregon American Civil Liberties Union, tossed a shot over the bow at the May 24 council meeting saying the ACLU will be watching how the future of the sit-lie ordinance takes shape.
"As we know, sitting on the sidewalk is not illegal and I would suggest that actually under a recent court decision out of Oregon, that the ordinance currently still is unconstitutional and has been pre-empted by state law." Meyer said.
Meyer noted two concerns with regard to the SAFE initiative, starting with the rights of people to gather for political expression.
"One of the things I see absent from this is the recognition that our downtown is a gathering place for all people to engage in lawful political expression and association," Meyer said. "That vibrancy and that aspect and that constitutional right of our people to gather in our downtown area is really absent, and its absence does raise concerns with us."
That led Meyer to her second concern about the definition of a "street disorder."
"Some people might consider a political protest, a gathering in response to what is going on nationally or locally, of people in the Pioneer Courthouse Square area, or other streets, that that could become a street disorder."
Alejandro Queral, executive director of the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center, is among those who have requested to be a part of the SAFE working group. He wants to see the group balanced with service providers and advocates for people experiencing homelessness in addition to business interests.
"If you're only going to have handpicked agencies to achieve a predetermined result, then it's not going to get us anywhere," Queral said. "Right now the Portland Business Alliance has its hands all over this. I think there needs to be a balanced approach."
Jim Delaney, an outreach coordinator for Project Respond, said he had requested to be on the SAFE working group and was told he could attend the meetings, but not whether he could join as a member of the working group proper. Delaney said he wants to be at the meetings to be able to convey any changes and plans to the people he works with on the streets. Otherwise, their first contact with any new policies will likely come from the police.
"The average person on the street is not going to get firsthand information," Delaney
said.
The term "street disorder" also has him concerned, particularly
because his focus of work is with people who are in crisis because of mental-health
issues that are untreated or not properly managed. Many people with mental
illnesses often suffer a degree of disorganization, making it difficult for
them to get and maintain housing and services, leading to homelessness.
"That's not addressing the problems from the person on the street's perspective," Delaney said. "It sounds more to me that it's something that will help businesses downtown and make it more appealing to people visiting. But the people in that position don't have the resources to change their situation."
Delaney said the current sit/lie ordinance and the curfew imposed on the park blocks is moving people he normally would help from downtown, which is lighted, well-policed, and service-oriented, to the eastside of the river.
"By imposing those regulations, it doesn't mean these people are going to be automatically housed," Delaney said. "They're going to be pushed away in sweeps and they're going to look for places where they can sleep safely and not be moved along."