Oregon Business & Industry filed an initiative petition, the Local Control and Safety Act, that seeks to repeal a 2021 Oregon law that prevents cities and counties from addressing unsanctioned camping. Repealing this law would allow communities to determine for themselves how to respond to the homelessness crisis in our streets and improve community safety.
Background: In 2021, the Oregon Legislature passed HB 3115 in response to a federal court case involving the authority of local governments to control unsanctioned camping. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the authority of local governments to control unsanctioned camping. Yet in Oregon, HB 3115 restricts how local governments can address unsanctioned camping as affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Only Oregon has such a statewide law on the books.
Why HB 3115 should be repealed: The law prevents local governments from managing homelessness challenges in a manner consistent with their communities’ needs and expectations. The tent encampments that have arisen throughout Oregon have eroded community safety while compromising the dignity of homeless people themselves. Local governments lack the resources to provide sanitary services such as toilets and running water to unsanctioned encampments. Homelessness is a complex problem, and its causes and solutions vary from one place to another. To address it, local governments need the flexibility HB 3115 prohibits.
Is there an alternative to the Local Control and Safety Act? Yes. The Oregon Legislature can – and should – repeal HB 3115 during the 2026 session. The law has made Oregon’s homelessness crisis worse, not better, and polling shows consistently that Oregonians overwhelmingly want HB 3115 repealed or reformed. Oregonians need their legislators to repeal this failed law with the same urgency with which they adopted it in 2021. The filed initiative is a last resort, but election timelines and processes require the filing to occur now even while OBI and others seek a legislative solution.
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