A homeless village is closing down due to fears associated with gun violence. The location’s operator All Good NW told media that gun violence on the streets around Broadway and Northwest Hoyt Street makes it too dangerous to live and operate there. It is a tiny home village for unhoused people located at Northwest Hoyt Street and Broadway.
The camp will be vacated later this month. It has been reported that the city of Portland’s economic development group, Prosper Portland, owns the lot, but the tiny homes are owned by Multnomah County.
All Good NW manages the BIPOC and Queer Affinity safe rest villages as part of its Joint Office of Homeless Services contract. Those villages are not threatened by gunfire. The organization said to them that the problem is the Old Town location.
Gunfire in the streets around the camp is said to be the main reason the nonprofit that operates the village is quitting. The organization said that it informed the Joint Office of Homeless Services that it would no longer be able to provide services in that location anymore. They reported that the Joint Office could not find another vendor to provide the services they provided in that space, and therefore made the decision to decommission the village.
The threats were not from the houseless community there. It was reported that it all came from out the fence. They reported a drive-by shooting where stray bullets went through the fence and into the camp. None of the residents were the target. The organization said it’s staff had to provide medical care on the streets around the village, and in the end site coordianator Goebel and his staff deemed it too dangerous for his staff and the residents to keep it going.
Once the camp is empty the rented bathrooms will go back. The homes will be stored some place and reused at one of the six other, new, safe rest villages slated to open.
