Astoria advances homeless camping ordinance

Oct. 18—The Astoria City Council advanced a camping ordinance that regulates where the homeless can and cannot sleep outdoors, but appeared to be in consensus that adding shelter beds is the ultimate solution.

The ordinance is in response to federal court rulings and state legislation that prohibited enforcement of illegal camping on public property in jurisdictions without adequate shelter spaces.

Cities, like Astoria, that do not have adequate shelter space have the option of detailing the time, place and manner people can sleep outdoors so camping can be enforced everywhere else.

"For me, this is what we can do for now," City Councilor Roger Rocka said following a public hearing on the issue Monday night. "But it can't be our endgame. The only way we can say what I think some of our business people would like us to be able to say — to say, 'You can't camp on Commercial Street,' or, 'You can't camp on Duane' — is if we have enough shelter beds.

"We have to have enough shelter beds for our homeless population, then we can say, 'no.' And by the way, that's the most humane thing for our homeless population who, after all, are human beings."

The City Council established the time and manner provisions in June, which allow people to set up temporary camps overnight from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. with bedrolls or sleeping bags, tarps, or small tents.

The place component, which the city chose to handle separately, would make the vast majority of the city off limits to camping.

Camping would be allowed on public rights of way in commercial areas, which the city has outlined in a map. People could only sleep on sidewalks if 6 feet of space can be maintained, with 10 feet from building entrances and stairwells.

The City Council expects to adopt the ordinance addressing the place component in the coming weeks.

Several people, however, expressed concerns.

Lisa Parks, the owner of Brut Wine Bar and Retail Shop, said she worries for her safety as a single, female business owner. She said she does not have any employees and closes her shop alone late at night.

"This is concerning that I could have multiple tents 10 feet outside of my door," Parks said, adding that she has already had several issues.

"There's been at least three times I've had to lock customers in my business and call the police due to issues outside. Even last Saturday night, I went an entire hour on Saturday without business due to the police activity across the street."

Celeste Olivares, a local artist, echoed Parks' comments and described a negative experience she had with someone who walked into Imogen Gallery while she was working alone.

"I just try to be nice and give people the benefit of the doubt," she said, arguing that the ordinance invites anyone to come to the city and camp.

Some argued that public camping and resources for those who are homeless attract more homeless people.

Others argued that offering shelter space and a campsite should be the priority.

Police Chief Stacy Kelly said he does not expect to see major changes as a result of the ordinance.

He noted that Kenny Hansen, the police department's community resource officer, has already been communicating the potential changes with the homeless population and that people have already moved accordingly.

"I really, truly don't see a bunch of tents popping up in downtown once this is passed because they already know where they're going to be allowed, and they found their little nooks and crannies." Kelly said. "Nobody wants to sleep on the sidewalk that's in that situation. So, we may see a few more, but I think they already kind of know the boundaries and they've found their spots."

City councilors also pointed to efforts to work with Clatsop County to identify a potential place to participate in Project Turnkey 2.0, a state program that provides funding to turn hotels and motels into emergency shelter and transitional housing.

City Councilor Tom Hilton said the ordinance gives the city a baseline to work with and puts Astoria in compliance with state law and federal court rulings.

"My family has been here a very long time," he said. "The city was not always safe. It was always very rough and tough. And if you think it's charming, that's just the exterior in which you look out when you look at the river.

"But if you want to really know it's a gritty place, and it chews up people and spits them out. All we can do is try and help those people that are being spit out. So, warming centers, solutions to feeding people — those things fall on all of us, they just don't fall on the five of us sitting up here," Hilton continued. "I don't like what I'm looking at here. I don't like any of it. And the citizens in which elected me don't like it.

"But we have to have some kind of baseline to work with in order to defend ourselves as a city against ... the United States government and the state of Oregon."