In August 2025, Grants Pass, Oregon settled a disability rights lawsuit over its treatment of homeless residents, agreeing to maintain at least 150 accessible, low-barrier camping spaces for 12 months, fund a $60,000 grant to a local nonprofit providing homeless services, and pay $85,000 in legal fees to the plaintiffs. The Grants Pass homeless lawsuit settlement, approved unanimously by the city council on August 6, 2025, filed with the court on August 8, and dismissed on August 15, resolved an emergency case brought by Disability Rights Oregon and the Oregon Law Center earlier that year.1OPB. Grants Pass Council Settles Homelessness Lawsuit2Disability Rights Oregon. DRO v. Grants Pass – Litigation Resources The city admitted no wrongdoing.
What Grants Pass Agreed to Do
The settlement commits the city to a specific set of obligations over the following year.
- Provide accessible, low-barrier camping capacity for at least 150 people on city-owned property or on property operated by a third-party contractor, maintained within the city’s urban growth boundary for 12 months.
- Ensure all approved camping sites comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act throughout that 12-month period.
- Supply drinking water and handwashing stations at approved sites, with shade installed at the drinking facilities.
- Award a $60,000 block grant to a local nonprofit that supports homeless residents, directed to a facility equipped with bathrooms, by the end of 2026.
- Pay $85,000 in legal fees to Disability Rights Oregon, split equally between the city’s general fund and its insurance, satisfying all legal fee obligations in the case.
- No admission of liability or wrongdoing by the city.3KOBI 5. City of Grants Pass Votes Yes to Settlement Agreement With DRO4Oregon Capital Chronicle. Grants Pass to Provide 150 Camping Spaces, $60K in Services After Disability Rights Suit
City Attorney Stephanie Nuttall said the city does not have to run the camping spaces directly. “As long as we’re making sure that somebody else is doing it, that would suffice.”3KOBI 5. City of Grants Pass Votes Yes to Settlement Agreement With DRO Once the court approved the agreement, she added, the city could resume enforcing its park regulations and begin clearing encampments from unauthorized areas.1OPB. Grants Pass Council Settles Homelessness Lawsuit
What the Designated Camping Sites Look Like
As of August 2025, the designated resting sites sat in the downtown area near City Hall and the police station. Individual spaces measure 8 feet by 8 feet with 3-foot buffers between them. Residents are generally allowed to stay up to four days before relocating, with accommodations available for people with disabilities.5The Guardian. Oregon Grants Pass Homelessness Settlement Camping Spaces6OregonLive. Grants Pass Sued Again Over Homeless Camp7Disability Rights Oregon. DRO et al. v. City of Grants Pass, Complaint
Why the City Settled
By the time the council voted, the city had already lost the preliminary rounds of the case. On February 3, 2025, Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Sarah E. McGlaughlin issued a temporary restraining order blocking the city from enforcing its camping penalties and from restricting camping solely to its small 7th Street site.8Street Roots. Judge Bars Grants Pass From Enforcing Anti-Homeless Ordinances While Lawsuit Continues
On March 28, 2025, she issued a preliminary injunction. The order barred the city from citing, arresting, fining, or prosecuting people for camping on public property and prohibited sweeps of homeless residents, with limited exceptions for Riverside Park and Reinhardt Volunteer Park. The city was required to increase its designated camping capacity to match pre-closure levels and to ensure its sites were physically accessible for people with disabilities. Judge McGlaughlin grounded the ruling in Oregon’s HB 3115, writing that the legislature “specifically required cities to consider the needs of the homeless population” in crafting camping regulations. She declined to block the entire municipal code, calling that approach “too broad,” and framed the state’s “objectively reasonable” standard as a “continuum of possibilities” balancing the interests of the entire community.9OPB. Grants Pass Camping Ban Halted
With enforcement effectively frozen, the settlement gave the city a path back to regulating public property while locking in minimum accommodations for homeless residents with disabilities.
What Triggered the Lawsuit
The emergency case grew out of two decisions by the newly elected Grants Pass City Council in early 2025. The council voted 5–2 to close the J Street site at 755 SE J Street, a city-owned lot that had held roughly 120 tents. Council member Dwayne Yunker cited complaints from homeowners and business owners about graffiti, trash, and theft. The site was cleared on January 24, 2025, in the middle of winter.6OregonLive. Grants Pass Sued Again Over Homeless Camp10IJPR. Grants Pass Clears City-Owned Homeless Campsite After Decision by New Leadership
The council also restricted the only remaining sanctioned site, a smaller lot on 7th Street next to the police station, to overnight use between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. The site had capacity for about 30 tents. Residents had to remove all tents and belongings each morning or face $75 citations.6OregonLive. Grants Pass Sued Again Over Homeless Camp
On January 30, 2025, Disability Rights Oregon and the Oregon Law Center filed Disability Rights Oregon et al. v. City of Grants Pass (Case No. 25CV05989) in Josephine County Circuit Court on behalf of five homeless residents with disabilities. The complaint alleged the city’s policies violated Oregon’s anti-discrimination laws for people with disabilities and the state requirement under HB 3115 that camping ordinances be objectively reasonable as to time, place, and manner.11Disability Rights Oregon. Advocates Reach Settlement With Grants Pass to Protect Homeless Residents With Disabilities12IJPR. Disabled Homeless Residents Sue Grants Pass Over Camping Restrictions
Why a State-Law Case Succeeded After the Supreme Court Ruling
Grants Pass had tightened its camping rules in the first place because the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way. On June 28, 2024, in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Court held 6–3 that enforcing generally applicable camping laws does not amount to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, even when shelter beds are unavailable.13Supreme Court of the United States. City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, No. 23-175
That ruling did not displace state law. Oregon’s HB 3115, enacted in 2021, independently requires that local camping ordinances be objectively reasonable as to time, place, and manner with regard to people experiencing homelessness.14League of Oregon Cities. Homelessness and Public Space HB 3115 and Oregon’s disability anti-discrimination statutes were the legal foundation for the January 2025 lawsuit and for Judge McGlaughlin’s injunction, and they are why the city ended up at a settlement table despite its Supreme Court win.
Tom Stenson, deputy legal director at Disability Rights Oregon, summarized the state-law standard this way: “You can’t create an ordinance that’s so arduous that it punishes people for being homeless or being poor.” He described the settlement as incomplete but meaningful. “It’s obviously far from where we would like the policy to ultimately be, but we have moved them a lot from where they were in January.”15Street Roots. Grants Pass to Provide Basic Relief for Homeless Residents Following Legal Settlement Allison Nasson, a staff attorney at the Oregon Law Center, said: “Requiring people to ‘move along’ everyday doesn’t get people into housing, it just makes life harder and more dangerous. When you have been forced to live outside, you still need water, a bathroom, and a place to rest.”11Disability Rights Oregon. Advocates Reach Settlement With Grants Pass to Protect Homeless Residents With Disabilities
What Happens Next
The city’s 12-month compliance window for maintaining the 150 accessible camping spaces runs through mid-2026, and the $60,000 nonprofit grant must be awarded by the end of 2026. As of September 2025, Grants Pass had restarted the grant process after the first round encountered difficulties, and the recipient nonprofit had not yet been publicly named.16OPB. Grants Pass Restarts Homeless Grant Process After First Round Fiasco Outside the settlement’s protected zones, the city has resumed enforcement of its park regulations and clearing of unauthorized encampments.