PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — After months of neighbor complaints, crime, garbage and drug use, a homeless camp profiled in KOIN’s ongoing series “Is Portland Over?” has been cleaned up.
The City of Portland removed tents, garbage, needles and biowaste from the camp in the freeway interchange west of Interstate 5 at Lombard in North Portland after the cloverleaf and surrounding area had been full.
In November 2021, KOIN 6 News listened to neighbors’ frustrations and pressed the city on its lack of response.
The city had cleaned up the part of the camp on the neighborhood side of the Oregon Department of Transportation fence that separates it from the freeway, but hadn’t touched the much larger encampments near I-5.
Last week, the city sent clean-up crews and referred campers to shelters. There are still people living in several tents and the city said its crews will be back.