Sheriff changes course and agrees to jail Portland camping ban violators

Mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O'Donnell announced Tuesday that violations of the city's anti-camping ordinance will now be punishable by jail time – at least for the next four months.

The announcement came after a public back-and-forth between elected officials after the sheriff surprised the mayor by declaring she would not jail people who violated the city's camping rules. A day after her announcement, Wheeler ordered police to continue to prosecute people who refused to stay in a shelter.

According to the statement, the booking policy will remain in effect for the next four months while the sheriff's office analyzes and evaluates data to see if it helps get people into shelters. Under the agreement, people who are taken to jail will be offered services again during the booking process. If they accept the offer, the city's Street Services Coordination Center will plan next steps to get resources to them.

“As Sheriff, public safety is my primary responsibility,” Morrisey O'Donnell wrote in the announcement. “I respect the City Council's decision to increase enforcement on quality of life issues and am committed to working together to find solutions that consider the broader context of homelessness and public safety. This temporary intervention, reserved for repeat offenders, is intended to strike a balance between accountability and addressing the challenges facing our community while creating pathways out of homelessness.”

It is unclear what prompted the sheriff's change of mind, which came after a meeting between the two officials on Monday.

On July 26, Portland police arrested the first person at the city's campground, but sheriff's officials declined to arrest the man when officers took him to jail.

Wheeler assumed that the sheriff agreed with the city's plan to arrest and imprison people who violated camping rules.

But Morrisey O'Donnell subsequently publicly criticized the policy, saying she did not believe the prison system should be used for “individuals whose only crime is being homeless,” adding that “arrests and incarceration are not a constructive solution to address the housing crisis.”

In particular, she pointed out that the expansion of prison admission criteria in August of last year only applied to people charged with a crime or misdemeanor under state law, not under city ordinances.

“The Sheriff's Office did not receive any request or communication from the Portland Police Bureau or the City of Portland regarding the inclusion of the public camping ordinance in the booking criteria prior to the City enacting the ordinance,” she added in a July 30 statement.

The city's Time, Place and Conduct ordinance prohibits camping on public property or public land if a person has access to reasonable alternative accommodation. So far, police have issued seven citation violations, spokesman Mike Benner said.

Enforcement of the rules was supposed to begin on July 1, but a heat wave immediately interrupted the measures, a spokesman for the mayor said.

— Zaeem Shaikh covers the Portland Police Bureau and criminal justice issues for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-221-4323, [email protected] or @zaeemshake.