Astoria City Council looks for new ways to respond to homelessness

Published 4:16 pm Thursday, February 26, 2026

Work session moves to new direction

The Astoria City Council held a work session on Monday to discuss Astoria’s homeless response. The meeting included city staff members, but unlike a work session addressing the same topic in December, it did not include community organizations.

The council has been mulling over what to do about the city’s homeless population. Some of the discussion has even spilled over to social media.

On Feb. 22, Facebook posts on the upcoming work session by Astoria City Councilor Andy Davis and others spurred hundreds of comments.

“This is one of the more difficult issues we wrestle with,” wrote Davis in a Facebook post ahead of the meeting.

In addition to the staff members, around 15 community members also attended Monday’s meeting, which covered a number of different possible solutions.

“There’s been a desire from council to do something different in terms of our homeless response,” said City Manager Scott Spence.

The work session concluded with the council eyeing a similar concept which would include a designated campsite like Seaside’s Stepping Stones which opened in August 2025. However, the council did not give clear guidance around enforcement.

Current policy

According to Spence, four years ago, the city council established a camping ordinance to manage homelessness in Astoria. The ordinance is broken into three sections for time, place and manner.

The time component of the ordinance constrains public camping to between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Place constrains campers to specific public walkways within the downtown area.

Manner requires that campsite sizes be 50 square feet or smaller and that campsites be removed daily.

This policy was put into action in 2022. Since then, there has been a notable uptick in encampments, from 12 to 34, according to Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly.

In addition, said Kelly, the police department does not have effective tools to enforce the ordinance in its current state.

“For any of this to work there has to be an enforcement mechanism of some sort,” he said.

Going forward

“Our current situation is not working,” said Councilor Elisabeth Adams. “It is creating undue hardship for people who are living on the street and for people who are trying to help people living on the street.”

Adams’ ward — Ward 3 — is the most impacted by homelessness as it covers the downtown area.

She said that she was in favor of fully repealing the camping ordinance and in favor of designing a new system. However, Adams is not in favor of a designated camp as she is concerned about safety issues.

Going forward, the council plans to have more work sessions and invite people like Kenny Hansen, Seaside’s street outreach coordinator, to give their perspectives on the city’s options.

Other worries about designated campsites that were brought up in the meeting included: what happens when a site reaches capacity and what to do about people who choose not to live in the designated site. Stepping Stones is currently facing those issues, said Kelly.

Mayor Sean Fitzpatrick said this is an issue he would like to see action on.

“This is something we should move forward sooner rather than later.”