Proposed Oregon ballot measure would make it easier for cities to sweep homeless camps

Oregon cities have railed for the better part of a year against a law that limits when they can sweep homeless camps. Now the state’s largest business group will ask voters to weigh in.

Oregon Business & Industry is behind a prospective ballot measure filed last week that seeks to give cities more authority to enforce anti-camping laws. It’s the latest salvo in an ongoing tug-of-war over how the state polices unsheltered homelessness.

“Local control over unsanctioned public camping is essential to promoting public health and safety,” Preston Mann, a chief petitioner behind the effort and OBI’s director of external affairs, said in a statement. “Yet, under existing, outdated law, our cities’ and counties’ hands are tied.”

The proposed ballot measure would repeal a 2021 law that block