Oregon’s homeless may be able to sue if anyone moves them on

‘It will trigger a cavalcade of civil lawsuits against law-abiding citizens and property owners’

HOMELESS people in Oregon could be given the right to sue anybody who tries to move them under legislation being considered in the state.

Democrats, who hold the majority in the state’s House of Representatives, have drawn up a bill that would decriminalise the tent cities that have been pitched on public spaces and enable their occupants to demand $1,000 (£796) in damages from people who try to remove them.

The bill would allow people without homes to stay “without discrimination and time limitations”. It adds: “Many persons in Oregon have experienced homelessness as a result of economic hardship, a shortage of safe and affordable housing, the inability to obtain gainful employment and a disintegrating social safety net system.”

It is the latest piece of controversial progressive legislation in the state which has been labelled by critics as America’s wokest. In 2021 it decriminalised the possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine, meth and other controlled drugs for personal use.

Known as the “Right to Rest Act”, the latest bill defines harassment as a “knowing and wilful course of conduct directed at a person experiencing homelessness that a reasonable person would consider as seriously alarming, tormenting or terrorising of the person experiencing homelessness”.

Critics have pointed out there are no reciprocal sanctions to protect residents from harassment at a time when crime has soared in Oregon.

The measure has attracted considerable opposition, with critics saying the soaring number of homeless camps has driven some residents out of the state.

Many residents have voiced their anger in the public responses to the proposal. “We need to stop enabling the homeless (even they have said this) and robbing them of the pride of making it on their own. It also just draws more homeless to our city,” wrote Gretchen Blyss. Jeffrey Bennett warned the bill “would trigger a cavalcade of civil lawsuits against law-abiding citizens and property owners while providing attorneys ample opportunities to pocket large fees at the public’s expense”. Megan Fraction added: “I work in lowincome housing and the criminality associated with said camps has made residents less safe. With police response times, this is a recipe for disaster.”