Portland’s mayor is saying that his new homelessness strategy is succeeding. Some experts are looking at the effect it will have on the homeless population. The police is saying that Mayor Wheeler’s approach has greatly reduced drug offenses and vandalism in some areas. Portland’s new program, directed from a street services coordination center that Wheeler created this spring through an executive order, aims to better serve people experiencing homelessness before sending them away from the camp.
The city’s new program has plans to collect more data. It is unclear when that will start or what data points will be collected. The city’s best data indicates its new strategy to force record numbers of campers to relocate has led about 15 people a week to enter a shelter, in a city with more than 3,000 people sleeping in tents or other makeshift abodes.
Some targeted data the city reviewed prior to expanding their sweeps plan showed that many individuals stayed at shelters only a single night. The available statistics support those critics’ analysis, indicating many more people living in tents and RVs have had their existence upended.
Since April 3, based on the number of tents the city says it has cleared away, 1,500 to 2,700 people likely have been ousted from their makeshift homes. The city says 489 have been offered a shelter bed — and about 40% of those, or fewer than 200, have occupied a bed for at least one night.
Following sweeps, Old Town saw a 51% decrease in reported drug offenses, a 93% decrease in trespassing reports and a 13% decrease in vandalism from March 22 to May 20, as compared to the prior 60-day period.
