Grants Pass Cracking Down On Transients

The homeless won’t find even a temporary home in Grants Pass after the city approved an ordinance that allows police to roust transients from makeshift camps, doorways and alleys.

“Enforcement will be driven by complaints,” said Ron Schwartz, director of the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety. “No incarceration is planned. We’ll just ask them to move along.”

The no-camping law was created after downtown merchants asked city officials to put a stop to people sleeping in alleys, in doorways and on sidewalks downtown.

Pat Sheets, executive director of the Towne Center Association, said some urinate and defecate in public and added that the number of transients tends to increase downtown in the spring.

The ordinance also is aimed at moving the homeless to a shelter.