Medford, OR Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Sit-Lie Rules (2026)

257(4)(a) prohibits camping on any sidewalk, street, alley, lane, public right-of-way, park, greenway, or other publicly owned property, or under any bridge or viaduct, subject to narrow exceptions in (4)(b) for code-authorized camping, emergency declarations, or a published City policy permitting it on specific properties. Separately, subsection (5)(g) creates a sidewalk-specific standard tied to obstruction rather than an outright ban: a person violates the section by camping, lying, sleeping, or using bedding materials on a sidewalk "if by doing so the person obstructs pedestrian traffic along the sidewalk or into private property and businesses adjacent to the sidewalk," and the code defines that obstruction numerically as reducing the path of travel to less than 48 inches, or occupying the curb side of a curb-tight sidewalk.

Subsection (3) separately bars placing or using bedding materials on a sidewalk (among other public property) for more than 24 hours consecutively in one location, or within 500 feet of the prior spot, unless authorized. Subsection (5) also layers additional sidewalk-adjacent restrictions: no camping within 20 feet of a residentially zoned parcel or residential structure, within 500 feet of a school, or within 500 feet of a homeless shelter. "