Portland mayor announces plan to BAN unsanctioned homeless encampments

The mayor of Portland has announced plans to shut down any unsanctioned homeless camps in the city – as the squalid tens continue to plague the area. 

Mayor Ted Wheeler held a video press conference Friday in which he called Portland’s homeless problem a ‘vortex of misery,’ and shared his idea on how to qualm the issue. 

The Oregon city currently has more than 700 homeless encampments across the city within less than 150 square miles, and the ordeal has also led to skyrocketing crime in the area. 

And some of the most charming, trendy and expensive neighborhoods of the Pacific Northwest city are now overrun with tent cities crowding residential sidewalks and littered with trash – and the issue is scaring away both locals and tourists. 

Announcing the ban, Mayor Wheeler said: ‘The magnitude and the depth of the homelessness crisis in our city is nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe.’

In his proposal, the mayor said that he plans to ban the unsanctioned encampments across the city and make way for the construction of 20,000 units in the coming years. 

Tents crowd the sidewalk that is littered with trash from homeless communities setting up camp in areas spread from downtown Portland now out through the suburbs 

A homeless man is seen next to tents, a shopping cart and stroller full of belongings and trash. Homeless encampments have been popping up along residential streets in several Portland neighborhoods

A man rummages through a bag next to a tent and shopping cart full of belongings and trash. Several unauthorized homeless camps are springing up on grassy areas next to sidewalks in residential areas of Portland after being pushed from downtown

Wheeler hopes that the units will be affordable and built over the next decade.   

‘We need to move our scattered, vulnerable homeless population closer to the services that they need,’ Wheeler said. 

A key factor of his proposal includes the idea to also create additional emergency shelters, Safe Rest Villages, and city-designated campsites. 

The actual banning of the homeless encampments would not come until ‘funding has been secured,’ the mayor said. 

A photo shows encampments blocking sidewalks adjacent to the Pacific Northwest College of Arts on SW Broadway and Hoyt Street

A homeless encampment is seen on a residential street in Portland earlier this year

A man slumps on the sidewalk in downtown Portland, Oregon. Homelessness, drugs and crime are dominating the contest to elect the state’s next governor. A Republican candidate with a law-and-order message has eased ahead in the polls

Clusters of tents dot down town Portland. Critics of the city say it has taken a ‘laissez faire’ attitude to drug users

A map shows the various homeless encampments across the city of Portland

Additionally, once the funding has been procured for his proposal, the government officials said that the rollout would take up to 18 months to roll out. 

‘No government agency in Oregon has more experience putting together temporary outdoor emergency shelter camps than the State. With the state’s help, we can get Portland’s designated sanctioned camping areas up before winter.’

Wheeler said that he would also need the support of state officials, including the governor, whose seat will be filled in November.

‘I need the governor-elect to ask the outgoing governor to immediately declare a statewide emergency declaration,’ Wheeler said. 

Republican candidate Christine Drazan holds a narrow lead in the race to be Oregon’s next governor

Rolling averages of polls suggest Drazan enjoys a narrow lead over Democratic Party candidate Tina Kotek, like this survey published this week by Emerson College Polling

The race is between Republican Christine Drazan and Democrat Tina Kotek, as well as third-party candidate Betsy Johnson. 

Drazan has previously been vocal about her plans to declare an emergency if she were to win the office. 

In an interview with FOX earlier this year, the Oregon gubernatorial candidate said she would work swiftly to handle the state’s homeless crisis.  

‘We have among the highest numbers for homelessness and addiction with the lowest level of access to recovery services,’ Drazan said. 

Republican nominee Drazan, left, and Democratic nominee Tina Kotek, middle, listen to unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson speak during the gubernatorial debate hosted by Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association at Mount Hood Oregon Resort in July

According to Wheeler, a large portion of the city’s homeless population is dealing with mental health and drug issues. making the difficult situation even more complicated.

‘Collectively, this is a vortex of misery for all involved,’ the mayor said Friday. 

Wheeler plans to introduce the official proposal at a Portland City Council meeting this week. 

Social workers would be responsible for finding anyone living in campsites on the city’s streets and directing them to the designated sites, the mayor said. 

Should the individuals refuse to move, police could become involved. 

In recent years, Portland has seen an alarming rise in homelessness. 

Like many Democratic led cities in the United States, Portland is experiencing a homeless crisis

The decriminalization of hard drugs is blamed by many for changing the tone of the city. Drugs are on open display

An encampment on 33rd Drive stretches for a mile of broken down RVs, cars and trucks

In 2019, the city recorded just over 2,000 homeless individuals. 

Less than three years later, that number has risen by 50 per cent, now at more than 3,000 living on the streets.  

The city currently says there are more than 700 encampments in less than 150 square miles. 

Scott Kerman, executive director of Blanchet House, a Portland nonprofit that provides social services for people experiencing homelessness, said the plan ‘has some positive elements’ but that ‘there remain a lot of unanswered questions and unknown details.’

Tents are lined up along a residential street in Portland, with belongings strewn about

A woman fills her bottle from a fountain in downtown Portland. She moves slowly, looking like a living statue

‘We’re serving people that even in the most extreme winter and summer weather conditions will not seek out emergency shelter because they have such PTSD and anxiety about congregate shelter,’ Kerman said. 

‘They have felt unsafe in those environments. They may have even been victimized in those environments.’

The nonprofit director also said he worries some of the state’s healthcare and judicial infrastructure is already too fragile to be dealt another blow. 

‘Our state hospital, our local hospitals, our county jails are already filled past capacity with people on mental health holds who are in the criminal justice system,’ he said.

In 2022 alone, Wheeler has made four emergency declarations regarding homelessness in Portland. 

The mayor also recently expanded a declaration that prohibits camping on highways and walking routes nearby K-12 schools.

Earlier this week, DailyMail.com shared exclusive photos from some of the city’s most ravaged streets.

‘You walk with blinders,’ said Charlene, a 21-year-old student. ‘Otherwise you wouldn’t come here at all.’

In a small city center park, morning dog walkers strolled past benches filled with drug users.

One man was seen flattening a piece of foil before putting a lighter to it, and inhaling the results through a pipe in plain view of a children’s playground.

In 2021, Portland reported 90 homicides – shattering the previous high of 66 – and could be about to surpass it this year. 

The city is so unsafe that well-respected franchises have pulled out of ‘The City of Roses’ entirely.

Starbucks recently announced that they would be closing a stores in the heart of the city because of security concerns. A member of staff confirmed that it was because of insecurity.

‘We’ve had some incidents,’ the employee said. 

Drazan weighed in on the closing on social media, writing: ‘When even coffee shops can’t stay open in Portland for public safety concerns, something needs to change.’ 

One woman near the Starbucks said that she understood the decision because the area had become a magnet for troubled people.

‘You just walk by and try not to let it bother you,’ she said, before pointing out an empty restaurant on the block that closed a year ago.

She added that she now carries mace spray with her.

Customers on Tuesday arrived at a Starbucks store in downtown Portland to be told that it will be closing on Thursday, as business struggle to survive amid problems with crime and homelessness. The issues are at the heart of an election for Oregon governor

The sign thanks patrons for their custom and said staff would be transferred to nearby stores

Wheeler’s latest proposal comes just weeks after a virtual meeting of the Portland City Council where one woman said that the Democrats’ attempt to stop homelessness in the area has been an ‘epic failure.’  

‘You have to stop enabling this,’ said Gillian Rose, a Portland resident. ‘I’m angry and I’m sad and I’m fed up, and I’m so sick of having politicians pander to a woke agenda that’s been nothing short of an epic failure.’ 

After Rose spoke, Wheeler chuckled audibly and responded, ‘thank you, you’ve made your point emphatically clear. Thank you for being here and sharing your perspective, we do appreciate it.’

After the meeting, Rose said that Wheeler had scoffed at her concerns, telling KOIN-TV: ‘when he laughed, it kind of just proved my point.’

She added ‘it was really insulting actually and painful to hear.’

The woman said she felt betrayed after moving to the city for its left-leaning views. 

‘I moved here in hopes of becoming part of a progressive city where it seemed like its leaders cared about social issues — what’s transpired here is not progressivism,’ she said.

Mayor Ted Wheeler chuckled was accused of enabling the homeless problem in Portland during a recent City Council meeting

Portland resident Gillian Rose accused Mayor Ted Wheeler of scoffing at her after she slammed the city’s handling of its homeless population

‘A lot of people who live on the streets fill them with trash and their own feces while openly using drugs — it’s not progressive, it’s insane and unacceptable,’ added Rose.

‘Portland has become the laughing stock of the country, it really has,’ she told the city’s leaders.

Rose told how Powell Boulevard had become clogged with tents and trash, describing the area as an ‘open drug market.’ 

She said that a homeless man had swung wildly at her partner on Spring Water Trail while they were out on a bike ride.

‘When you consider carrying a gun or bear mace while riding your bike, I think something is severely, severely wrong,’ she said.

Rose told how her friend, a realtor, lost a deal because a homeless encampment sprung up in front of a house that his clients were about to buy, scuttling the deal.

She said that a neighbor, an occupational therapist at Legacy Emmanuel Medical Center, primarily treated homeless people who had infections from drug use, or burn injuries from accidently setting themselves on fire.

‘Please stop wasting our money and destroying our beautiful city and please start being leaders,’ the frustrated resident concluded.