• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
WRAP

WRAP

Western Regional Advocacy Project

  • Donate Now
  • Get Email Updates
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • About
    • 40 Years of Fighting
    • History
    • Mission
    • Strategy
    • Members
    • Board / Staff
  • Campaigns
    • Business Improvement Districts
    • House Keys Not Sweeps
    • Homeless Bill of Rights
    • Oregon Right To Rest
    • Without Housing
    • Street Outreach
  • Organizing Tools
    • Without Housing Organizing Toolkit
    • Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign Manual
    • WRAP Organizers Manual
    • WRAP Artwork
  • Resources
    • Art in Action Power Point Slide Show
    • Hobos to Street People
    • House Keys Book
    • Political Education
    • Legal Research
  • Media
    • Newsletters
    • Blog
    • Hobos to Street People Art Show
    • Street Newspapers
    • Sweeps Gallery Videos
    • Videos
  • Support Us
    • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Sustainer
    • Volunteer
    • Support WRAP
    • WRAP Newsletters & Updates Sign Up

Oregon Right to Rest (HB 2367) Hearing April 13th – Media Advisory

April 8, 2021 by Jonathan 2 Comments

Media Advisory: Right to Rest Act (HB 2367)
For Immediate Release April 5, 2021 Salem, OR

The bill they can’t kill, the Sweeps that do!

Oregon’s houseless face life and death each day on the streets and deserve the dignity The Right to Rest Act provides.

Community members from across Oregon have pressured the House Judiciary Committee to act on the Right to Rest Act (HB 2367) first introduced by Freshman Representative Campos. HB 2367 was scheduled for a Judiciary Committee Hearing on March 9 when Chair Janelle Bynum abruptly pulled the bill on March 8. Also pulled were over 80 written testimonies in support of the Act as community members plead for the “sweeps,” which is when cities force our houseless neighbors to move over and over again while seizing all their possessions, to stop.

The Act is now scheduled for a hearing on April 13, 2021 at 1pm and co-sponsored by Representatives Pham, Grayber, and Dexter.

“Oregon’s homeless folks deserve dignity and they deserve to be heard. Our office recognizes the value and importance of centering the voices of our most vulnerable communities and will continue to push for policy that elevates the issues impacting these communities.” – Rep. Wlnsvey Campos

House Bill 2367 is critical life-saving legislation for our houseless communities across the state. John, a Portland houseless neighbor who supports HB 2367, talks about the barriers that “sweeps” pose to houseless neighbors who want to work:

“The biggest and loudest complaint I hear from people is that they want to look for a job and they can’t because we can be “swept” at any time. We are afraid to leave our things because when we come back, they will be gone. Our entire existence is to wake up, eat, and wonder when we will be moved. And this is America.” – John, Houseless neighbor

The Right to Rest Act would prohibit law enforcement, security personnel, or public employees from harassing, citing, or arresting houseless people for exercising their rights to to use and move freely in public spaces, rest (sit, stand, and sleep), eat and share food, pray and occupy a legally parked vehicle and will effectively end the daily “sweeps” of houseless camps.

    

Lynn, a Portland houseless neighbor, shared:

“My husband and I have been houseless for nine years. Everybody thinks we are drug addicts and alcoholics. That’s not the case. We are under the poverty level so there is no place for us but the streets. Sweeps disrupt everything. When our belongings are destroyed or seized during a sweep the City is stealing our money, our belongings and our time that could be spent working. We are prisoners of the City because we can’t leave our home.”

 

Homeless people are most often prosecuted for “crimes of survival,” like sitting, lying down, or sleeping in public space. Out of 565 street outreach surveys conducted by the Western Regional Advocacy Project in Oregon, 88% of homeless people were harassed, cited or arrested for sleeping, 83% for sitting or lying down and 78% for loitering or “hanging out”.

HB 2367 is not just a “homeless bill”. Unhoused people are not the only people who are targeted for police contact solely for being in public space, as shown by the myriad of racially violent stories in which the police are called on people for #WalkingWhileBlack. When laws exist that can arbitrarily criminalize anyone, there is an immense risk that our legal system will continue to reinforce the oppression of and brutality against non-white, poor citizens, whom police have historically been able to kill and maim with impunity. HB 2367 directly states that people have the right to exist in public space and participate in social and economic life without facing constant threats from discriminatory policing. Adele, a Portland houseless neighbor who lives in her car, stated,

“Sweeps are like being raped. The anxiety of not knowing when my stuff will be taken is overwhelming. I don’t have a chance to have a place where I can rest, and gather things that are important for me to survive. I’m lost when they take my belongings because I know anything I gather again will be taken away again. They are supposed to keep your belongings but one friend of mine who was swept later found his stuff by the side of the road where Rapid Response dumped it.”

…I know of a couple who froze to death in their tent during the snowstorm because they were afraid to leave their stuff. The sweeps kill.”

Video:
Click here to see the City of Eugene bulldozing a houseless neighbor’s tent on Dec. 2, 2020.

###

 

Contact Information:

Lynn, Portland houseless neighbor Mobile, 503-496-6836

Adele, Portland houseless neighbor Mobile, 971-212-9215

John, Portland houseless neighbor Mobile, 503-805-2718

Paul Boden, Western Regional Advocacy Project Mobile, 415-430-7358
Email, stopthesweepspdx@gmail.com
Website, wrap@wraphome.org

 

Endorsers:

Download the PDF file .

Supporting Materials:
Oregon Right to Rest Act | Western Regional Advocacy Project
ACLU 2017 Report, “Decriminalizing Homelessness: Why Right to Rest is the High Road for Oregon”
The Right to Adequate Housing” from the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights
Portland homeless account for majority of police arrests, analysis find

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z7yk2od5Yoo
Dec. 2, 2020 – City of Eugene bulldozing someone’s tent to take to a dumpster

Filed Under: #right2rest, Actions, Events, HBR, Homeless Bill of Rights, Homelessness, Oregon, Press Releases, Sisters of the Road, Stop the Sweeps, Stop the Sweeps Austin, WRAP Members

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Howie Harkema says

    April 13, 2021 at 4:01 pm

    Every person deserves safe sleep. The ordinances written to prevent safe sleep by our houseless communities are inhuman and defy the purpose of the Ninth Circuit Court decision that it is cruel and is a punishment. We must repeal these ordinances once and for all…

    Log in to Reply
  2. Brent Oyler says

    April 16, 2021 at 2:17 pm

    Sweeps are constant in California.especially in Modesto. My wife and i, both college students , have video of stanislaus county Sherrifs threatening and forcing us to move with a giant back hoe . ripping out trees by the rivers and stealing or demolishing housless neighbors belongings and homes

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Footer

Instagram Feed

Register here tinyurl.com/Mumia-film for Thursday Register here tinyurl.com/Mumia-film for Thursday night’s online screening of this moving, informative, personal, important, and artfully-made film. Cast includes Cornel West, Angela Davis, Dick Gregory, Alice Walker, Ruben ‘Hurricane’ Carter, and Amy Goodman.
Forty years ago, the federal government slashed af Forty years ago, the federal government slashed affordable housing budgets of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), marking the beginning of the contemporary crisis of homelessness. https://conta.cc/3k4mDpA
Theatre of the POOR presents CRUSHING WHEELCHAIRS Theatre of the POOR presents CRUSHING WHEELCHAIRS 
Sunday 2/12/23 4pm San Francisco 2948 16th St.
Sunday 2/26/23 4pm Oakland 1540 Broadway 
For more information poormag@gmail.com
One of the questions we asked people we love about One of the questions we asked people we love about this continuing forty-year process of addressing the root causes of homelessness in America was recognizing that our comrade Paul has also been fighting this neoliberal bullshit for forty years. In earlier emails people spoke about the importance of WRAP. Here is what some of our friends had to say about Paul’s role over the last forty years. https://conta.cc/3vbUnUx
Next Thursday, the 22nd, at 11am we are having a p Next Thursday, the 22nd, at 11am we are having a press conference as the preliminary hearings begin and need all our allies to show up and call for justice! https://conta.cc/3FyNtgH
A lot of work done addressing oppressions across t A lot of work done addressing oppressions across the country takes place in courtrooms and legislative bodies. This work is not always successful due to the fact that the oppressors are the ones making the laws. But we know you can’t fight a system if you don’t know the ins and outs of how that system works.  https://conta.cc/3VQrVDl
Join the next Public Works Committee Meeting to re Join the next Public Works Committee Meeting to reject the “safe work zone” ordinance that aims to further criminalize unhoused people and their advocates during sweeps.
Monday, 12/12 at 10:30am
bit.ly/oakmtg-1212
Let's Celebrate Chucho Let's Celebrate Chucho
We are raising $40,000 for WRAP’s vital work at We are raising $40,000 for WRAP’s vital work at this 40-year mark, and all donations will be matched up to $20,000 in November and December! Contribute $40, $400, $4,000 to help make sure that mass homelessness is not around another 40 years. https://conta.cc/3VAWHQ8
1936 1936
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Facebook Icon

Facebook Feed

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons
Link thumbnail

Republican plan would outlaw homeless camps near California schools or parks

www.ijpr.org

Sacramento, Elk Grove and Los Angeles passed similar encampment bans last year, despite opposition from advocates who say they harm unhoused...
11 hours ago
View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • Likes: 0
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

Twitter Icon

Twitter Feed

Unable to load Tweets

Follow

YouTube icon

Youtube Code

Our Channel

Copyright © 2023 Western Regional Advocacy Project WRAP · Log in