Red city at center of Supreme Court ruling faces new ‘demoralizing’ hurdle in policing homeless camping

The Oregon city at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on homeless encampments is in "as bad or worse" shape than it was before the decision, according to the man who runs the area's only overnight shelter.

"Almost every city in the country has been more positively affected by the Supreme Court case than the city of Grants Pass," Brian Bouteller, executive director of the Gospel Rescue Mission in Grants Pass, told Fox News Digital. "We are like an exercise in how not to handle things."

The Supreme Court last summer ruled that Grants Pass, a Southern Oregon city of around 40,000 residents, could stop homeless people from sleeping in public parks and streets.

The case gave local governments more power in policing homeless camping, and waves of cities in blue states like California and Washington soon passed strict bans on camping on public property.

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Grants Pass officials closed the larger of the city's two designated outdoor camp sites in January, leaving just one site with a capacity for about 30 tents and no potable water, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported. The city requires homeless people to pack out their belongings from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day.

Homeless advocates sued, arguing the city was violating Oregon law, and Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Sarah McGlaughlin issued a preliminary injunction on March 28.

"There are forces at work in the state of Oregon that… anticipated how this would come out and that have played a better chess match than we have," said Bouteller, who supports stricter regulations on public camping.

McGlaughlin's order bars the city from punishing homeless people until it increases its public camping capacity to the same level it offered before it closed the site in January. The city must also make sure camp sites include "accessible routes and surfaces for people with disabilities," Jefferson Public Radio reported.

The Gospel Rescue Mission offers 138 beds but has been less than half full since 2020, Bouteller said. The shelter has many rules for residents, including a ban on drugs and alcohol, which means most people camping in public parks won't utilize its services, he said.

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"There's kind of this assumption that, basically, the people that are in these tent camps really want to get out, and if they had nowhere else to go, then maybe they'd come into a place like this. But that's not the case," he said. "That's not the way the drug addict thinks."

McGlaughlin's order comes as a blow to those who have been trying to clean up the community, Bouteller said.

"It's a really demoralizing time for the folks here," Bouteller said. He pointed to an incident last April in which a youth baseball game had to be paused while emergency workers removed a dead body from a tent.

"This is a problem that you might expect in San Francisco or some of the worst places in LA or Seattle or Portland. You would not expect to see [it] in Grants Pass, Oregon."

Josephine County is a rural, conservative county in southwest Oregon. Nearly 63% of the county's voters supported President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, compared to about 41% of voters statewide.

"It's this little conservative spot that they would love to see go away and they would love to punish us for being conservative and having conservative values," Bouteller said.

He added, "My hope is that the people in the community just don't give up heart and continue to stay in the battle."