The City Council has given Parks Department staff and legal advocates for the homeless time to hash out new wording for the proposed revamped parks exclusion ordinance.
During the initial council hearing Nov. 29, homeless advocates with the Oregon Law Center and Andrea Meyer with the Oregon American Civil Liberties Union asked that the city not approve the revamped ordinance because it still discriminates against people experiencing homelessness. The city has delayed the second hearing until Jan. 11, allowing time for homeless advocates with the Oregon Law Center and the Parks Department to consider changes to its exclusion policy.
The ordinance was rewritten to clarify and simplify its language, not significantly change policy. However homeless advocates say the existing ordinance was overbroad, allowing authorities to use a wide range of prohibited behaviors to remove homeless people from public areas. The ordinance allows parks and police authorities to ban people from parks for 30, 90 or 180 days depending on their past record.
“We see the people who get kicked out of the parks everyday, kicked out for minor infractions for months at a time,” said Ed Johnson, housing and homeless attorney for the Oregon Law Center.
Johnson wants the city to collect and analyze data on how the ordinance has been applied in the field. A one-month compilation of citations from two years ago showed that nearly half of those cited were homeless or assumed homeless.
“It really does impact people,” said Monica Goracke, also an attorney with the Oregon Law Center. “When people are excluded, it isolates them even further. It makes them feel like criminals.”
Goracke said she would like to see the punishments fit the crimes, with shorter, 24-hour bans for minor behavior infractions. Currently, violators receive a verbal and then a written warning before being excluded.
The two significant policy changes are prohibiting smoking in Pioneer Courthouse Square and banning sex offenders from public pools and playgrounds.
