The city of Gresham has modified its parks exclusion ordinance following a class-action lawsuit from three homeless men. The new code requires specific criminal offenses before exclusions are given, and limits the locations where those exclusions apply.
The code now allows for 30-day exclusions for offenses that are considered a threat to public safety, such as drug use, as compared with minor crimes such as loitering.
Officers may exclude people for 24 hours if their conduct is serious enough to prevent other people from enjoying the park, trail or open space.
Unlike the previous ordinance, which allowed an exclusion to apply to all parks, the ordinance limits exclusions to where the alleged offense took place. It also requires a verbal warning be issued to allow the suspect to stop the unlawful behavior, with the exception of very serious violiations, before issuing an exclusion. The new code also establishes an appeals process for citizens who believe they have been wrongly excluded.
The plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit against the city after police banned them from all city parks for 90 days because the men were allegedly unlawfully camping along the Springwater Trail. It was later learned that the camp was on private property, and not part of Gresham’s park system. The suit claimed that moving the men out of all the city parks, the city was denying them access to public events typically held in parks.
The men’s attorney, Ed Johnson with the Oregon Law Center, said his clients sought to protect the rights of homeless people who feel that Gresham police were using the ordinance to push homeless people out of town. The plaintiffs claimed that the officers also excluded them from public libraries and denied them travel between Gresham and Portland by denying them access to the Springwater Trail, part of the city’s park system.
In 2004, Johnson filed a suit against Portland’s exclusion ordinance, resulting in a U.S. District Court judge ruling that the ordinance was unconstitutional.
