Gov. Brown Urges Oregonians to Stay Home, Considering Statewide Eviction Freeze

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has not explicitly directed Oregonians to “shelter in place,” but she’s certainly suggesting it.

In a morning press briefing with reporters, Brown said she’s “encouraging and urging Oregonians to stay home” and avoid travel as the number of COVID-19 cases in the state continue to grow. The Oregon Health Authority reported 26 new confirmed cases on Friday, bringing the state total up to 114.

“Whether you live in rural Oregon, or urban Oregon, the activities you do on a daily basis are truly a matter of life or death,” Brown said. “So I’m urging Oregonians to save lives and stay home.”

Brown did not, however, issue a shelter in place order—which would allow Oregonians to leave their homes for essential errands like pharmacy visits, grocery shopping, or leaving to work critical jobs, but discourage any kind of unnecessary trips out of the house.

Some cities and metro regions across the country have already issued these orders. On Thursday, California became the first state to announce a statewide shelter in place rule.

Asked what it would take for her to issue such an order, Brown said, “For me, the bottom line is if there is evidence that there are Oregonians not complying with the aggressive social distancing measures I’ve put in place, I will have to take more restrictive measures.”

It wasn’t clear what evidence Brown needs to make this call.

Brown’s response echoes what Portlanders heard from regional county health officials Thursday afternoon. In a press conference, Tri-County Health Officials Dr. Jennifer Vines stressed the importance of social distancing rules, but discouraged the idea of a legally-binding shelter in place order. Rachael Banks, public health director for Multnomah County, said that forcing people to stay inside for a long period of time could have a serious impact on the public’s mental and physical health.

“While we want to be clear we support physical distancing, it’s our job to consider the unintended impacts and downsides of that,” said Banks.

During the call, Brown revealed that she’s looking into issuing a statewide moratorium on residential evictions, a decision Washington Gov. Jay Inslee made on Wednesday. Brown also said she’s made a new request of 1 million N95 medical masks, 300,000 COVID-19 test swabs, and 140 ventilators from the federal government.