City launches public camping survey

ROSEBURG, Ore. – City officials are asking the public to complete an online survey about public camping that launched on Wednesday, Feb. 8.

Input is being sought from as many community members as possible to help guide the City in determining potential additional regulations or restrictions the City may want to impose. City officials ask everyone with an interest in Roseburg – housed and unhoused residents and others who own businesses, work or shop in Roseburg -- to take a few minutes to fill out the anonymous public survey.

“We want this survey to reach all people in the city -- those who work here, live here, shop here or just visit,” said Roseburg Police Chief Gary Klopfenstein. “This is about obtaining information from all the stakeholders.”

The City must review and potentially update its existing regulations to comply with new State laws that provide compassionate protections for people experiencing homelessness. In 2021, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bills 3115 and 3124, which impose requirements on local governments' regulations around prohibited camping.

The laws stipulate that individuals can’t be punished for sleeping outside on public property in the absence of adequate alternatives, but the City can impose "reasonable time, place and manner" restrictions on such activities in public spaces. The City is required to obtain input from all affected parties when considering changes to those regulations.

People can take the online survey by going to the City website’s homepage and clicking on the “Public Camping Survey” button. Roseburg Public Library, 1409 NE Diamond Lake Blvd., has public computers people can use to fill out the survey. The library is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Roseburg Police and community partners also will hand out cards or flyers containing black-and-white QR codes that can be used to access the survey. Using a smart phone or tablet and a cellular, Wi-Fi or other Internet connection, individuals just hover the device’s camera or software app over the QR code until a window for the survey pops up.

The survey asks general questions and more detailed questions such as what factors to consider when evaluating potential locations for overnight camping or how people feel about public camping being restricted to the hours of 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. Also, the survey asks people to rank areas for suitability as a space to allow camping. Those areas include office/commercial areas, industrial areas, city/government-owned property, parking lots, parks and others.

The City is seeking input through the surveys, which must be completed by Friday, March 10. Individuals can submit only one survey. You must click “done” at the bottom to submit a survey, even if you did not answer all questions.