ORS 195.530 Noncamping Use of Public Property By Homeless Individuals; Attorney Fees

• Library: Oregon Statutes
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through legislation effective January 1, 2024
• Year: 2023
• Citation: ORS 195.530

(1) As used in this section:

(a) "City or county law" does not include policies developed pursuant to ORS 195.500 or 195.505.

(b)

(A) "Keeping warm and dry" means using measures necessary for an individual to survive outdoors given the environmental conditions.

(B) "Keeping warm and dry" does not include using any measure that involves fire or flame.

(c) "Public property" has the meaning given that term in ORS 131.705.

(2) Any city or county law that regulates the acts of sitting, lying, sleeping or keeping warm and dry outdoors on public property that is open to the public must be objectively reasonable as to time, place and manner with regards to persons experiencing homelessness.

(3) It is an affirmative defense to a charge of violating a city or county law described in subsection (2) of this section that the law is not objectively reasonable.

(4) A person experiencing homelessness may bring suit for injunctive or declaratory relief to challenge the objective reasonableness of a city or county law described in subsection (2) of this section. The action must be brought in the circuit court of the county that enacted the law or of the county in which the city that enacted the law is located.