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Grants pass daily courier11/14/2022 ![]() That ruling applies to the eight Western states in the court’s jurisdiction, including Oregon. Supreme Court refused to hear the landmark case late last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling was upheld. Boise ruling, which in 2018 declared it unconstitutional to punish people for sleeping outdoors in public spaces when there aren’t enough shelter beds to meet demand. Theirs is the first lawsuit to test the Martin v. In signing on to the lawsuit, she joined 11 other people experiencing homelessness who allege Grants Pass police have systemically ticketed, harassed or arrested them or have otherwise tried to them push out of town. She is disabled due to a seizure disorder and was a resident of Grants Pass for four years before becoming homeless after a break-up. In a declaration she signed in support of the lawsuit, his partner, Parker, told of his death and her own difficulty finding anywhere to sleep without being ticketed or trespassed. Rather than provide shelter to its homeless residents, officials in Grants Pass have worked to make their life as unpleasant as possible in an effort to push them out of town, according to a lawsuit the Oregon Law Center filed against the city just weeks before Morrill died while trying to warm himself. The town has no subsidized housing, and just half of those who are lucky enough to get a Section 8 housing voucher are able to find a landlord who will rent to them.ĭespite being home to hundreds of people without a permanent residence, at the time of Morrill’s death, Grants Pass offered no emergency shelter, no warming shelter for cold and wet winter nights, and no cooling shelter for hot and sometimes smoke-filled summer days. Like many other communities across the state, Grants Pass has watched its homeless population grow as its housing affordability has declined. Two months later, service providers counted more than 600 people experiencing homelessness in the small town of just over 37,000. Morrill and Parker were sleeping outside because in Grants Pass, there was nowhere else the couple could have slept that night. It’s a dangerous but common way to create heat for people experiencing homelessness. The night he died, Morrill was burning propane to counter the fall chill. The burns on his body were so severe that officers who responded to the scene in Baker Park that night were given mental health counseling following the incident, according to local news reports. Police tried to extinguish the explosion’s fire with a nearby sleeping bag but were not immediately able to pull Morrill from the flames. The 65-year-old man was homeless and had been living on the streets of the small town in Southern Oregon with his partner, Kellie Parker, for several years prior to the accident. GRANTS PASS - Kirt Morrill died from his injuries after a propane tank exploded at his camp in a Grants Pass city park on Nov. ![]()
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