Oregon Homeless Laws: Sweep Notice, Belongings, and Ordinance Limits

Oregon homeless laws give people living outside stronger protections than federal law requires. Any city or county ordinance that regulates sitting, lying, sleeping, or keeping warm and dry on public property must be “objectively reasonable” toward people experiencing homelessness, and before clearing an established campsite, local governments must post 72 hours’ written notice and store any belongings they collect for at least 30 days. Those rules come from ORS Chapter 195 and still apply, even after the U.S. Supreme Court loosened the federal standard in 2024.

What “Objectively Reasonable” Means for Everyday Rules

ORS 195.530 is the core protection. A city or county law that regulates sitting, lying, sleeping, or keeping warm and dry on public property has to be objectively reasonable as to time, place, and manner with regard to people experiencing homelessness.¹ A court decides reasonableness under the totality of the circumstances, including how the law actually affects unhoused people.

“Keeping warm and dry” means what someone needs to survive outside given the weather, but the statute explicitly excludes anything involving fire or flame.¹ A city can ban open fires at a campsite without violating the law. The statute also separates these everyday-use rules from the campsite-removal procedures in ORS 195.500 and 195.505; the “objectively reasonable” test governs the ordinances, while the removal rules follow their own track.

If someone is cited or charged under one of these ordinances, they can raise unreasonableness as an affirmative defense, which puts the city in the position of defending its rule in court.

Why the Rules Still Apply After Grants Pass

On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson that enforcing public camping laws against homeless individuals does not violate the Eighth Amendment.² The decision overturned the Ninth Circuit’s Martin v. Boise framework, which had blocked cities from penalizing people for sleeping outside when no shelter beds were available.

Oregon had already written the Martin protections into state law. HB 3115, championed in 2021 by then-House Speaker Tina Kotek, became ORS 195.530. After Grants Pass, Oregon city officials asked the legislature to repeal those state protections. The legislature declined. The federal floor dropped, but Oregon’s statutory floor did not.

The 72-Hour Notice Before a Sweep

Before clearing a camp, law enforcement must post a written notice at the site at least 72 hours in advance.³ The notice has to go up at all identifiable entrances, in both English and Spanish. At a minimum, it must tell residents where any unclaimed property will be stored and give a phone number for that information. If the storage location has not been decided yet, the notice must list the address and phone number of the agency that will have the information once it is set.⁴

The 72-hour period is firm, with three exceptions:

Law enforcement has grounds to believe illegal activity other than camping is happening at the site.
There is an exceptional situation, such as possible hazardous material contamination, a public health emergency, or immediate danger to human life or safety.
A funeral has been scheduled with less than 72 hours’ notice at a cemetery where a camp exists, in which case the notice period drops to 24 hours.³

Outside those three situations, skipping the notice exposes the local government to a legal challenge. Every city and county also has to adopt a written removal policy in the first place; ORS 195.500 requires the policy and ORS 195.505 sets the minimum contents.⁵ Local governments can go beyond those minimums but cannot fall below them.

What Happens to Belongings After a Sweep

When a campsite is cleared, unclaimed personal property has to be collected and stored for at least 30 days, and it must be reasonably available during that period to anyone claiming ownership.³ Where it goes depends on where the camp was:

Outside Multnomah County, property must be stored in a facility located in the same community as the camp it came from.
Inside Multnomah County, property must be stored within six blocks of a public transit station.³

Items must be stored in an orderly fashion, with belongings that appear to come from the same person grouped together to the extent ownership can be determined.⁴

Not everything is kept. Items with no apparent value or utility, and items in unsanitary condition, can be discarded during the removal. Weapons, controlled substances other than prescription medication, and items that appear stolen or tied to a crime go to law enforcement instead of into storage.³

Time, Place, and Manner Limits Cities Can Impose

Oregon law still lets cities and counties manage where and when camping happens, as long as the restrictions pass the reasonableness test. Common approaches include prohibiting camping in high-traffic downtown corridors, in active recreation areas within parks, and near schools or childcare facilities. Temporal rules often require people to take setups down each morning and allow them back after a set evening hour.

The limit is that restrictions cannot add up to a total ban in disguise. If a city restricts so many locations and hours that no realistic place to sleep remains, the ordinance is vulnerable under ORS 195.530. Because the test looks at the totality of the circumstances, a court will weigh the combined effect of a city’s rules rather than examining each rule alone.

How to Challenge an Unreasonable Ordinance

A person experiencing homelessness does not have to wait for a citation to challenge a bad ordinance. ORS 195.530 allows a lawsuit for injunctive or declaratory relief, filed in the circuit court of the county that enacted the law.¹

A prevailing plaintiff can be awarded reasonable attorney fees, but only if two things are true: the plaintiff was not pursuing a purely personal interest, and the plaintiff gave the local government written notice at least 90 days before filing, explaining the basis for the challenge.¹ The 90-day window gives the city a chance to fix the problem on its own. The attorney-fee rule matters because it makes these cases financially workable for legal aid organizations and civil rights attorneys.

One boundary worth knowing: the statute does not create a right to sue for money damages. The available remedy is getting the ordinance struck down or reformed, not a damages award. If a sweep itself violated the notice or storage rules in ORS 195.505, those are separate questions about compliance with the removal policy, and anyone affected should consult a lawyer about the specific facts.

1
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 195.530 – Noncamping Use of Public Property by Homeless Individuals
2
Supreme Court of the United States. City of Grants Pass v. Johnson
3
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 195.505 – Elements of Camp Removal Policies; Unclaimed Personal Property; Notice
4
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 195 – Local Government Planning Coordination
5
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 195.500 – Policy for Removal of Homeless Individuals Camping on Public Property