Grants Pass

Firefighters in Grants Pass are getting a major pay raise for next year. The costs could spell trouble for the city’s budget.

The city of Grants Pass is restarting its effort to award a $1.2 million grant to an organization that can shelter 150 homeless people, a program intended to ease pressure on city resources.

Grants Pass police cleared homeless encampments Tuesday morning at Baker and Kesterson Parks, directing residents to leave public property.

The tentative agreement requires the city to ensure space for campers and fund some homeless services.

It’s been one year since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Grants Pass’s ban against homeless people camping in public. The ruling reverberated across the U.S., freeing cities to crack down on homeless encampments. But in Grants Pass, the city still can’t clear all its homeless camps.

Juneteenth commemorates the abolition of slavery in 1865. This year marks the 160th anniversary.

The drive-thru coffee chain first started expanding in Oregon, moving to Eugene, Salem, Portland and other cities before growing outside the Northwest.

The city is still finalizing the details, including the amount of the grant. The city council will discuss the program again at a meeting on Monday.

If approved, the deal would ban camping in seven more parks, some near schools and in residential neighborhoods.

Grants Pass has faced an increasingly visible homelessness problem in recent years, including a series of lawsuits.

People in recovery in Southern Oregon now have a new option for support: a recovery cafe opening in Grants Pass.

All four of the city’s homeless campsites will be within two blocks of each other.