Letter: ‘Astoria can be compassionate and orderly at the same time’
Published 1:25 pm Sunday, March 1, 2026
Resources and accountability have to be the bookends of Astoria’s response to unsheltered homelessness.
Right now, people see tents at corners, blocked sidewalks, trash and drug paraphernalia, and some business owners are cleaning up human waste. Folks are angry, and they’re scared. But anger can’t erase the fact that the people outside are still people, and often the most vulnerable among us.
Oregon law forces us to be practical. House Bill 3115 requires that any rule about sleeping, sitting/lying, or “keeping warm and dry” on public property be “objectively reasonable” on time, place and manner.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Grants Pass ruling changed the federal baseline, but it didn’t wipe out Oregon’s standards or the truth that enforcement without alternatives just moves the problem to the next block. Doing nothing isn’t compassion either. It leaves our houseless neighbors in unsafe conditions and hurts businesses.
The fastest way to reduce tents in high-impact areas is a pipeline: from street, to safe place tonight, to stable place next, to housing or treatment after that.
That means three layers: an option every night with predictable intake, hours, and staffing; a managed alternative shelter that is not an unmanaged tent camp, with a named operator, daily oversight, sanitation, storage limits and strict cleanup rules; and permanent supportive housing and behavioral health pathways for the hardest-to-house, or the system rebounds.
Astoria can be compassionate and orderly at the same time, if we commit to resources and accountability.
SEAN DAVIS
Astoria
