Baker County Commissioners have approved an ordinance outlining how the county will remove homeless people who are camping on public property.

Commissioners unanimously approved the ordinance Wednesday, June 7.

The ordinance, No. 2023-01, which took effect immediately, applies to public property except within incorporated cities.

Baker City has its own ordinance, approved in May 2022, regulating where people can camp within the city limits.

Kim Mosier, the county’s attorney, told commissioners that the Oregon Legislature has passed two laws related to homeless camping, one of which requires cities and counties to have a policy for removing people camping on public property.

“If there was a homeless individual camping on public property (and) there was a meeting to ask those folks to move on, we have to do it in a very particular way,” Mosier said.

Specifically, the county ordinance requires that officials give campers at least 72 hours notice before removing them from a campsite. County officials must post a written notice, in English and Spanish, at all entrances to the campsite.

Further, the ordinance states that when posting a 72-hour notice, law enforcement must inform local social service agencies about the notice, “so as to allow the local agency to arrange for outreach workers to visit the camping site. … to assess the need for social service assistance in arranging shelter and other assistance.”

The ordinance also lists the process for the county to deal with possessions that are not claimed after people are removed from a camp. The county must keep those items for at least 30 days.