The Grants Pass City Council recently designated four city-owned locations where homeless people will be allowed to camp. On Tuesday night, Ashland City Council will discuss its Homeless Services Assessment Report, which is meant to guide the city in its response to homelessness. Eureka and Roseburg have been reevaluating their public camping rules.
On Tuesday night, city councils in Redding and Yreka will do the same.
Yreka City Manager Jason Ledbetter said he鈥檚 hopeful the Supreme Court decision will push municipalities to actually work to address homelessness by building more housing.
"I'm not an optimistic guy, to be honest with you, but I'm taking a very optimistic silver lining approach to this topic, that we actually may end up in a very positive position based off of this by forcing a conversation that most agencies, if I'm being honest with you, just have not had," he said.
Ledbetter said he hopes the court ruling will encourage cities to find solutions to homelessness, rather than just talking about it.
"There's an elicited emotional response that a lot of people have, and so they'll get public comment, and then that'll initiate an emotional response from the city council, rather than just taking a step back and looking at this issue in a pragmatic way as to define the problem and then create the solution," he said. "And so that's where I think we're currently at, is that we're actually looking at it in this way."
At the end of July, California Governor Gavin Newsom released instructing agencies to address encampments on state property and calling for all local governments to remove camps from public spaces.
"Gavin Newsom and the Supreme Court have really led us to this confliction point on some level where I think people are finally ready to have an adult conversation about this topic," Ledbetter said.
But Miles Slattery, city manager of Eureka, said Newsom's executive order is "laughable" because it's too vague and doesn't absolve governments from liability.
He said the city is working to update its camping ordinance as well, but he doesn't expect there to be major changes since Eureka prioritizes services over enforcement.
"We've always addressed our encampments, and issues that we have with encampments, from a social services base. We go, we offer them services, we provide 72-hour notice. If they don't vacate, then we store their belongings and make them move, but at the same time, provide them the services," Slattery said.
In Roseburg, however, officials are considering imposing more serious penalties for breaking public camping rules, including jail time, according to reporting from KLCC.
