ROSEBURG, Oregon — The Roseburg Homeless Commission held a meeting on Monday, August 26, 2024, to prepare for a City Council meeting scheduled for later Monday evening to discuss updates to homeless camping sites and changes to camping ordinance.
Several key community members attended the meeting to discuss the needs of the city, including United Community Action Network Executive Director Shaun Pritchard.
One of the points of discussion at the meeting concerns changes to the city’s camping regulations and the Ruling confronts Grants Pass with how to deal with homeless camping.
Roseburg presented Regulation No. 3586 in 2023 which created new regulations regarding the “time, place and manner” of camping by homeless people.
But with the potential change to Roseburg’s camping rules, the homeless community faces harsher penalties, including fines and possibly jail time for violating the rules.
Roseburg Mayor and Council President Larry Rich led the meeting’s discussion by first asking whether the city actually needs a campground outside of the services already provided by outside organizations.
“I just wanted to plant the seed so that everyone has a chance to think about it and then come back and be able to make a decision. It just leads to the thought: what do we have available and do we already have enough space, beds? So why don’t we put a campground together,” Mayor Rich said.
The commission then turned its attention to UCAN’s Gary Leif Navigation Center as a point of contact for the homeless population.
Navigation Center staff emphasized that the waiting lists for admission to such emergency shelters are long, with up to 30 people waiting for treatment at the same time.
The change to the camping regulations will be voted on at the city council meeting on August 26th starting at 7 p.m.
If the council makes the final decision to amend the code, people who violate the ordinance, including its “time, place and manner” restrictions, will face fines of up to $100 for a first offense and $250 for a second offense. They can also be sentenced to up to seven days in jail for a third offense.
