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PORTLAND, Ore. (PORTLAND TRIBUNE) — Long-simmering tensions over government responses to outdoor camping burst into the open last week. The controversy focused on whether the homeless should be allowed to live in clearly dangerous settings. It likely will end up in court and become an issue in this year’s city, county and regional elections.
Mayor Ted Wheeler on Friday, Feb. 4, banned camping along freeways in the city and major Portland streets designated as high crash corridors. His emergency declaration directs the city’s Impact Reduction Team that cleans up homeless camps to prioritize them for removal — and to not let them return.
The ban sparked pushback from advocacy organizations who charged it was wrong and illegal.
A recent poll found most voters support moving homeless off the streets, however.
Wheeler’s announcement followed the release of a Bureau of Transportation report that said one-third of all people killed in Portland traffic crashes last year were homeless. That jumped to 50% in January, according to the Portland Police Bureau.
“We have continuously witnessed unsanctioned camping in clearly unsafe locations, sometimes jarringly close to roads and freeways,” Wheeler said at the Friday press conference where he announced the ban. “You don’t need to be a traffic engineer to sense that that’s not safe.”
The announcement also followed the release of a survey by the Portland Business Alliance that found 83% of voters support requiring people who are currently living outside to sleep in shelters or designated camping locations. That includes 79% of Portland voters and 86% of voters in the remaining tri-county region.
Despite that, after news of Wheeler’s upcoming ban leaked, it was opposed by a coalition of 22 advocacy groups.
“(We) strongly object to the emergency declaration to sweep encampments and further displace unhoused community members from alongside our most dangerous roads,” said a letter sent to Wheeler before his press conference. It was signed by homeless and alternative transportation advocacy groups that included Oregon Walks, Central City Concern, The Street Trust, Urban League of Portland and Northwest Pilot Project.
The letter also cited a 2018 U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Martin v. Boise that governments cannot ban the homeless from public property unless there are enough viable shelter options for them.
While an exact count of the number of unsheltered homeless residents in the city is unknown, Portland likely does not have a matching number of shelters.
The Portland-Multnomah County Joint Office of Homeless Services just finished its most recent official homeless count after a two-year pandemic delay and will not release updated figures for months. The so-called “point in time” survey is notoriously nonscientific and traditionally undercounts the actual number of unsheltered homeless.
“Sweeping unhoused people without viable options for them to safely relocate and shelter is inefficient, ineffective and inhumane,” said the advocates’ letter, which proposed closing high-crash-corridor streets, reducing speed limits and improving transportation infrastructure instead.
Wheeler was undeterred. When asked by reporters Fridays where displaced homeless are supposed to go, he responded, “The answer I have is, ‘somewhere safer.'”
Wheeler also said this is the first in a series of executive actions he plans to take in coming weeks to address the city’s homelessness crisis. He also acknowledged the ban was in the works before the PBOT’s report was released, but said the grim findings underscored the need to act quickly.
There could be unintended consequences if the displaced homeless move into residential neighborhoods and businesses districts, including downtown. Many people living and working in those sectors of Portland already complain about homeless campers.
After a pause prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Impact Reduction Team that Wheeler oversees has resumed sweeping homeless camps, citing public health and safety concerns. The sweeps — which are increasing with additional city funding — have not yet been challenged in court.
The traffic fatality figures for the previous year were included in the Vision Zero Crash Report 2021, which was released Wednesday, Feb. 2. It said that 63 people were killed in crashes on Portland streets last year, the highest number in three decades. Nearly one-third of them — 19 — were homeless. They accounted for 70% of the 27 pedestrians killed in 2021.
All outdoor camping without adequate shelter and access to food, water and sanitation is inherently dangerous. The question of how to respond to campers who are unwilling to relocate into shelters or managed campsites has been on the back burner of the debate because of the pandemic. But it has recently resurfaced because the City Council is pushing to create more emergency and transitional shelters, including the six managed Safe Rest Villages advocated by Commissioner Dan Ryan.
During her State of the Region address on Friday, Jan. 21, Metro President Lynn Peterson boasted about the progress being made to reduce homelessness thanks to the affordable housing and supportive services measures approved voters in the past few years.
But when asked what can be done for the homeless who refuse to move into shelters, camps or permanent housing, Peterson had no easy answer. Instead, she said homelessness traumatizes people and makes then distrustful, and that it is best to try to work with them where they are.
The Metro president is one of several elected offices who are up for reelection this year, and who are partly responsible for reducing homelessness. So are four other Metro Council positions, Multnomah County Chair and District 2, and the city council seats currently held by Ryan and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty.
The PBA poll released on Jan. 28 found 45% of voters in the region consider homelessness the No. 1 issue. That compares to just 24% who picked crime.
Despite the controversy, the areas where Wheeler banned camping are a relatively small percent of Portland. In addition to freeway embankments, the designated high crash corridor streets are just 8% of the city’s roadways, albeit major ones.
Wheeler on Friday also banned camping with 150 feet of the Safe Rest Villages and along streets leading to the transit stops nearest to them. Most of that space likely will be within the high crash corridors, however.
By the numbers
2021 Portland traffic fatalities
63: total killed in crashes
19: homeless residents