PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Just days after neighborhood groups withdrew support for a Safe Rest Village planned along the south end of Naito Parkway, Commissioner Dan Ryan will meet on Tuesday with some of the neighborhood groups to discuss all the villages and their requests.
On Friday, one group withdrew their support for the Naito Parkway village. But now there are concerns about another site on the north end of Naito, a piece of land near the Broadway Bridge in Northwest Portland.
Residential neighbors contacted KOIN 6 News about a growing group of tents and an RV parked inside the fenced off property that is intended to eventually house a Safe Rest Village later this year next to the Harbor of Hope Navigation Center that provides homeless housing and services.
The neighborhood association said it’s been told the city will ask the campers on private property to leave. But no time frame was given — and KOIN 6 News saw more people arriving.
“If there’s a problem, the city or the county or whoever — someone has the responsibility for taking care of issues that occur such as accumulations of trash, criminal activity, building up of tents,” said Stanley Pankin, the president of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association.
This is one of the issue neighborhood groups living near designated Safe Rest Village sites worried about. They want a 1000-foot buffer around the villages to prohibit camping and enforcement of that ban.
Ryan said the city has rules that prohibit camping within 150 feet of a Safe Rest Village. There is no plan to do criminal background checks on potential Safe Rest Village residents.