Restaurant and Developer Groups Are Piling Onto A Camping Lawsuit Against the City

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The list of people suing the city over new camping policies is growing.

In a motion filed today, a group of organizations that believe Mayor Charlie Hales' lenient stance on camping is illegal say they've found three new plaintiffs to sign onto a lawsuit filed last month. They are the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association (ORLA), the National

Association of Industrial and Office Properties Oregon Chapter (NAIOP), and a summer camp program called Camp Creative. The fresh plaintiffs join six other groups who hope to convince a judge to overturn city policies that allow camping on certain "remnant" properties and pave the way for more organized homeless encampments.

At the same time, a prominent Portland neighborhood group has dropped out of the suit. The Pearl District Neighborhood Association no longer has interest in being a plaintiff in the matter, according to the motion.

The developments highlight increasing controversy over a policy that many homeless advocates say is the most rational stance the city's taken in years. Hales announced in February he was removing blanket restrictions on camping because the city doesn't have enough resources to offer nearly 2,000 houseless people a place to go at night.

Business groups are furious with that reasoning. The Portland Business Alliance and its Clean & Safe arm filed the initial lawsuit, along with the Central Eastside Industrial Council, Overlook Neighborhood Association, Cartlandia food cart pod, and more. They argue that Hales had no legal ability to change the camping policy without a city council vote, and that Portland's flouting state law by having more than two transitional homeless camps.

We've not been able to reach representatives of NAIOP or ORLA about their decision to pile on, but Camp Creative's had public beef with homelessness on the Springwater Corridor. Joe Kurmaskie, who heads up that program, announced last month he was canceling it, owing to safety concerns about guiding kids on bike trips down the corridor.

We've also reached out to the Pearl District neighborhood group about the decision to leave the lawsuit.

All this drama is playing out as Hales' office works on finding more shelter space (Multnomah Village residents are losing their minds because a homeless shelter there might stick around instead of closing this month) and to set up a system of organized encampments with shed-like sleeping pods.

Update, 4:45 pm: Jason Brandt, director of ORLA, called us back. He says homelessness is far too visible downtown these days. He says suing the city will help spur a conversation. He can't say what the homeless people who still won't have a place to go at night if the lawsuit succeeds are supposed to do.

"When you have homelessness front and center like it is in Portland this is a conversation that has to be had," Brandt says. "The reason we’re involved is we have noticed a shift in the image that Portland is conveying to outside visitors. If a shift like that continues to take place, it affects jobs, it affects the livability if the area. It also affects tax revenues."

Brandt says ORLA gets complaints about the visible homelessness downtown. We asked him for an example. He mentioned a couple that had "verbal incidents" with homeless people on a walk, and saw a guy peeing. They were uncomfortable.

"We need to make sure we're not allowing this activity," he said.

As to the Pearl neighborhood association, it sounds like they never wanted to be part of the lawsuit to begin with. At least not necessarily. Association President Patricia Gardner sent us this statement:

"We were listed by mistake in the lawsuit. The PDNA voted to investigate being part of the lawsuit but we have not taken a vote to join."