The tents proliferating on sidewalks in downtown and residential neighborhoods across Portland, Oregon, are fueling a debate that’s playing out in cities nationwide as the homelessness crisis in the U.S. explodes: Should camping be banned anywhere except in sanctioned sites?

Republican-led states including Texas and Missouri have passed laws in the past couple years prohibiting street camping while diverting money from affordable housing projects to short-term shelter solutions.

Now, after decades of struggling to tackle homelessness, some progressive West Coast cities are considering similar plans. Portland City Council members voted Thursday to create at least three large, designated campsites and ban the rest of the roughly 700 encampments currently scattered across the city. More than 3,000 people are living without shelter in Portland, a 50 percent jump from 2019, according to the proposal.

“People on the streets deserve our compassion. They need our understanding, and many of them need our help to get off and stay off the streets,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said after the vote. “It is my personal view that these resolutions take an important step forward for the city of Portland to be able to do just that.”

Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty was the sole council member that voted against the resolution.

“I hear and share the anxiety and frustration community members feel around the city about the houseless crisis. And I’m committed to continue to work to solve the problem,” she said. “But saying we will magically wave a wand in 18 months and there will be no more street camping is not real.”

Opponents have said the camping restrictions effectively criminalize homelessness and fail to address its root causes.

“As visible homelessness has increased, there is also an increase in pressure from the public and from others for elected officials and other folks in positions of authority to address that issue,” said Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “What’s starting to happen is that the way to immediately address an issue that is at its core an affordable housing problem is to try and remove people from public view.”