Portland Moving Homeless Camps Near Schools

Mayor Ted Wheeler issued an emergency order last week that bans camping along sidewalks already designated by the city’s transportation bureau as commonly used walking routes to more than 110 public and private schools citywide. The order stated that children walking to school could be harmed by having to walk along routes “that could contain potentially dangerous hazards as a result of encampments, including trash, tents in the right of way, biohazards, hypodermic needles, etc.”

School is back in and many see the type of debris around the camps and are concerned. The emergency declaration uses already-determined routes to dramatically expand the list of places where people experiencing homelessness cannot live. Unhoused individuals are not allowed to live near dangerous roadways or near the city sanctioned tiny home villages. Combined, those rules ban people from camping along 21% of city roads.

Most Portland schools are back in session. The mayor’s office has directed staff to prioritize clearing homeless encampments near schools. Some camps near schools have already been removed, and city-paid workers are prioritizing clearing more along popular walking routes to elementary and middle schools.

Action has already been taken and is actually ongoing. City workers and contractors have been busy removing camps near Cleveland High School, Parkrose High School and Childpeace Montessori School, Bowman confirmed. The city also posted notice alerting campers it plans to remove camps near Sunnyside Environmental School, according to a city memo, and the area was cleared as of Monday afternoon. Bowman said “dozens” of tents have already been removed and “dozens” more are slated to be cleared in the coming week.

Each tent typically houses one to three people. Recently, the city forcibly removed 64 campsites throughout the city.  Of the people who were kicked out of their temporary homes, 27 stayed in a shelter at least one night. The mayor’s office has prioritized aggressive and repeated sweeps in business districts including Old Town and downtown.