The ordinance, which was approved 5-3 on Wednesday, would also limit how long these events can last and prohibit distribution of propane tanks and drug paraphernalia, like clean needles or performing a needle exchange.
Organizations would have to submit data to the city at least twice a year, including the number of people they serve and the number of supplies they distributed.
"The 'why' behind doing this doesn't make sense to me," said Cassy Leach, the executive director and co-founder of MINT, a Josephine County nonprofit that provides services to homeless people.
"I don't know why we're putting an ordinance on humanitarian aid, especially in a city where there's little-to-no resources, no navigation center [or] low-barrier shelters for our unhoused. So it's just trying to add more restrictions to a vulnerable population that already has really nothing," she said.
The city worked with MINT and the nonprofit HIV Alliance to take feedback on the ordinance.
It still has to be signed by Mayor Sara Bristol in order to take effect. But she’s not sure if she’ll support it.
"I guess as far as the need to permit and regulate humanitarian social service acts in the parks, I don't feel a need for that myself. So I guess I do have some misgivings about the situation. And I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet," she said on Friday.
Under the ordinance, an organization's registration with the city will be valid for four months, and then they must register again.
If a permit were to be denied, the organization could appeal it to a hearings officer. After that, it would go to the Josephine County Circuit Court.
The new ordinance is being considered as a case about criminalizing homelessness in Grants Pass is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The city’s ordinances regulating homelessness were found to be unconstitutional by a Medford court in 2020 because they violated the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause and Excessive Fines Clause. That case will be heard by the Supreme Court in April and could have implications for regulating homelessness across the West.
As part of that ongoing legal battle, Grants Pass is under a court injunction from August 2020. It says the city cannot enforce its camping ordinances, or an ordinance relating to criminal trespassing on city property like parks, during certain hours in any city park except Reinhart Volunteer Park. Because of the injunction, homeless people can currently camp in nearly all city parks without those two ordinances being enforced.
Bristol said the number of people camping in city parks, and the services being provided to them there, has led to the newly approved ordinance.
"Our unhoused presence in the parks has grown quite a bit over the last three, four years, and neighbors and people who enjoy using the park for recreation have been very concerned about this. And one of the things that some people feel, I guess, encourages homeless presence in the parks is to provide outreach services," Bristol said. "I don't personally feel that way."
One of the goals of this ordinance is "to address ongoing incompatible uses in city parks and public property," according to the council's agenda packet.
A separate lawsuit is also underway in the South Coast community of Brookings. That city was sued by St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in 2022, which argues it's prohibiting the church from exercising its religious belief of serving the hungry.
The issue began in 2021, when the Brookings City Council created an ordinance requiring a permit for meal services in residential zones, although St. Timothy's had already been serving food for years. The ordinance also says meals can only be served two days a week.
The city says the church had been out of step with local laws and requiring a permit will allow them to continue serving meals lawfully.
Oral arguments for that case were heard on Feb. 15, and both sides are awaiting a ruling from the judge.
