(Fox News) Oregon Democrats have put forward a bill that would decriminalize camping despite calls for help from residents already exasperated by the homelessness crisis in the state.
Oregon House Bill 3501, known as the Right to Rest Act, states that homeless individuals will have “a privacy interest and a reasonable expectation of privacy in any property belonging to the person, regardless of whether the property is located in a public space.”
The bill also allows homeless individuals to sue for up to $1,000 if they are “harassed” or told to relocate.
Kevin Dahlgren, a drug and alcohol counselor, looks into an empty tent erected near occupied tents on a Portland, Oregon, sidewalk on Feb. 17, 2023. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
The housing bill comes as homelessness in Oregon spiked in 2022, Oregon Public Radio reported, and residents in cities like Portland and Eugene have sounded the alarm about the negative effects of homeless encampments.
“I love Portland and I love where I live,” Portland homeowner Jacob Adams told Fox & Friends in February in a plea to elected officials to do something about a homeless encampment next to his house, where fires and drug activity have terrorized his family.
Homeless encampments near downtown Portland, Oregon. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer, File)
“I’m asking you to please do something, so the people of the city feel safe.”
Armand Martens, an 83-year-old Vietnam veteran who also lives next to Adams, told a local outlet he felt safer walking down the streets of Saigon than he does in Portland.
