Mayor Julie Hoy’s efforts as a private citizen to repeal state requirements about removing homeless encampments spilled over into a recent Salem City Council meeting as over a dozen residents took the microphone to share concerns about the future of the city’s approach toward people without shelter.

Hoy last month signed on as a chief petitioner for a statewide initiative seeking to make it easier for cities and counties to remove homeless people and their belongings from public spaces.

She joined two other chief petitioners in filing “The Local Control & Safety Act” with the Oregon Secretary of State, which seeks to repeal a 2021 state law that requires cities to justify whether removing someone from the public place they’re sitting, lying or sleeping is “objectively reasonable as to

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