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By Claire Rush

The Associated Press

PORTLAND 鈥� The small Oregon city at the聽heart of a major U.S. Supreme Court ruling聽last year that allowed cities across the country to enforce homeless camping bans is facing a fresh lawsuit over its camping rules, as advocates find new ways to challenge them in a legal landscape shifted by the high court鈥檚 decision.

Disability Rights Oregon sued Grants Pass on Thursday, accusing it of violating a state law requiring cities鈥� camping regulations to be 鈥渙bjectively reasonable.鈥�

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that the bad decision from the Supreme Court is the end of homeless advocacy,鈥� Tom Stenson, the group鈥檚 deputy legal director, told The Associated Press. 鈥淚 think we鈥檙e going to see that it continues, because the problem isn鈥檛 going away. The need for housing is not going away.鈥�

Mike Zacchino, the information coordinator for Grants Pass, stated in an email that the city had no comment.

The Supreme Court ruling聽issued in June 2024 made the southern Oregon town of 40,000 the unlikely face of the nation鈥檚 homelessness crisis. It ushered in a new era of homeless policy by allowing cities across the U.S. to ban sleeping outside and fine people for doing so, even when there aren鈥檛 enough shelter beds.

In Grants Pass 鈥� where officials have struggled for years to address a homelessness crisis that has divided residents 鈥� the decision paved the way for the new mayor and City Council members elected in November to crack down on camping upon taking office.

The high court decision overturned a ruling from a California-based appeals court that found camping bans when shelter space is lacking amounted to cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution鈥檚 Eighth Amendment. It enabled Grants Pass to enforce local ordinances barring camping on city property such as parks and sidewalks.

Grants Pass has just one overnight shelter for adults 鈥� the Gospel Rescue Mission 鈥� and its rules requiring attendance at religious services and barring pets, alcohol, drugs and smoking mean many people won鈥檛 stay there.

After the ruling was issued, the City Council designated two city-owned properties as the areas where the town鈥檚 hundreds of homeless people would be allowed to stay.

But recently, the new council closed the larger of the two campsites 鈥� which housed roughly 120 tents, the complaint says 鈥� and made the remaining smaller one open only from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., forcing people to pack up their belongings every morning and carry them throughout the day with no place to legally set them down.

鈥淚t wants to make being homeless in Grants Pass so unpleasant that people go elsewhere,鈥� Disability Rights Oregon said of the city in its complaint. 鈥淒espite the presence of numerous elderly, ill, and disabled people on site, the city increased its draconian restrictions in the dead of winter leaving hundreds of people with no legal option for their continued survival.鈥�

Five homeless people with disabilities who live in Grants Pass are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. They include people who use wheelchairs and canes, as well as people suffering from the aftermath of a stroke or missing part of their limbs, according to the complaint.

Among them is Janine Harris, who has lived in Grants Pass for over two decades and became homeless four years ago. The 57-year-old, who says she struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, lived at the larger city-sanctioned campsite until it closed.

鈥淎 lot of us do not have any idea where to go,鈥� she told the AP on Thursday. 鈥淚 really am hurting, physically and mentally.鈥�

Harris said she joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff because she wants city officials to recognize that homeless people are human beings.

鈥淛ust because we don鈥檛 live in a house doesn鈥檛 mean that we鈥檙e not,鈥� she said.

The complaint says the camping restrictions discriminate against people with disabilities and violate state law, which states that cities鈥� rules regarding when, where and how homeless people can sleep or keep warm and dry outdoors must be 鈥渙bjectively reasonable.鈥�

鈥淭he City has discriminated against people with disabilities by imposing standards for participation in its camping program that require people to move themselves and their own belongings frequently and for no good purpose,鈥� the complaint says. 鈥淧eople with physical disabilities affecting their movement or chronic illnesses that make frequent lifting, carrying, and walking distances difficult or impossible have been and will be cited and prosecuted for violating city ordinances regarding camping.鈥�

Disability Rights Oregon is asking the court to block the city from enforcing its camping rules.

Homelessness continues to be a nationwide crisis. Last year,聽it increased 18 percent聽in a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of聽affordable housing聽as well as聽devastating natural disasters聽and an聽increase in migrants聽in several parts of the country.