PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — After a one-month delay, the popular trail plagued by homelessness is set to get a major makeover starting on Thursday morning.
While some of the approximately 300 campers have already packed up, many are still sleeping on the Springwater Corridor and have no idea where they’ll be sleeping after September 1.
“You get out of prison, you have no place to go. Only place you can lay your head is right here,” said Butch, who calls the corridor home. “What I’m asking is, can you see it from my side?”
“What I’m asking is, can you see it from my side?”
Butch says he understands why people want the campers out, considering the mess that’s left behind. Those who have moved away from the trail ahead of the sweep have left behind trash and an overwhelming smell.
“I think it’s caused more chaos and clutter,” said Jesse, who has been camping on the corridor for 6 months. “It’s just going to be moving another problem to another area.”
The city expects the cleanup to cost anywhere from $150,000 to $400,000.
Jesse thinks lot of people will refuse to leave the area when the sweep starts.
Outreach workers have already been making contact with the homeless campers and will continue to do what they can after the sweep.
Rob Schryock with the Clackamas Service Center says a big part of the problem with the sweep is that people will be spread out across the city.
“People get moved all over the place, so it’s hard for service providers to track people they’ve been working with,” Schryock said.
It’s still unclear where these campers will go. Chad Stover, policy director of livability with the mayor’s office told KOIN that the likely scenario is these campers will just camp elsewhere.
Stover said they hope to have “low-impact” camping, with groups of 6 people or fewer.
The Hansen Building, run by Transition Projects, has 30-40 people who stay along the corridor every day and wait for a bed in the shelter, which is almost always full.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to help the people who are out there just to connect with them before they’re all scattered to the wind,” Schryock said.
