Activists seek to halt homeless sweeps (PMG–Portland Tribune)
By Lyndsey Hewitt|Aug. 4, 2016
Onlookers can see a lot from Pittock Mansion, where the view of Portland is just as glorious and vast as the 16,000-square-foot mansion itself.
What likely can’t be seen from up there, however, are the tiny tents tucked amid the trees and wildflowers along the portion of the Springwater Corridor in outer East Portland, where many transient individuals have made their living space.
Portlanders have heard a lot of news lately about the corridor and its many issues, including police responding to shootings and assaults, several fires, and angry nearby residents who no longer have peace and quiet. The tipping point came when Mayor Charlie Hales decided to do the “cleanup.”
Originally scheduled to be completed by Aug. 1, the “sweep” of homeless encampments along the Springwater Corridor trail was rescheduled to Sept. 1 in order to give campers more time to find another situation.
Hales says the postponement was prompted by a potential lawsuit by the Oregon Law Center and requests from caseworkers for more time to help the campers. But it also came after a list of nine demands was made by various advocates, outreach volunteers and community organizers, spearheaded by Portland Tenants United, on behalf of the estimated 500 corridor campers. The grassroots tenants group and other advocates were prepared to help campers stand their ground and stay when police came around to shoo them away.
“We’re pleased that there’s been a postponement … but we’re also aware that that might not be enough to secure homes, whether they’re in tents or some other place for people who are on the corridor,” says Jamie Partridge, who has been a PTU activist for the past year. “And if there isn’t, we face the same situation again on Sept. 1. We will defend campers’ rights to stay until there’s adequate relocation available.”
Portland Tenants United is promoting rent control and highlighting the rising numbers of no-cause evictions, which displaced some of the people now living outside in tents.
In the initial results of a June survey of 128 campers on the corridor, conducted by Clackamas County Health, Housing and Human Services, 19 percent cited evictions as their cause of homelessness and 6 percent cited rent increases.
“The steeply rising rents we’ve seen over the last several years have definitely made the homeless situation worse, especially since the incomes of low-income households have remained flat or have even declined during the same period,” says Marc Jolin, initiative director at A Home for Everyone, a joint Portland and Multnomah County partnership that includes advocacy and social service organizations to house homeless citizens.
The result, Jolin says, is that more people are then unable to afford rent and have to give up their housing or face eviction — and that “those who are already homeless have an incredibly difficult time finding a place to live.”
At Hales’ request, the City Council declared a State of Emergency in Housing and Homelessness in October 2015. The city has since been scrambling to respond to the growing number of people sleeping in tents.
“I’ve been out on the corridor the last week talking to folks,” Partridge says, “and I hear the same story over and over: ‘I was paying $600; it jumped to $1,500, now I’m up here camping.’ Or ‘I asked for repairs and got evicted.’ ”
Partridge argues it’s largely wealthy developers causing the problem and landlords who are taking advantage of the tight housing market.
“We would like to see a rent freeze and landlords put in lease language about continuation of leases without rent increases more than the rate of inflation,” Partridge says. He thinks this would give people the ability to plan and adjust, rather than getting hit with increases unexpectedly and ending up on the street as a result.
Landlord organizations say they are only responding to the demand created by so many more people moving to the Portland area after years of not increasing rents during the Great Recession.
From January through March of this year, 211Info — Portland’s information and referral line for services such as rent, shelter and food assistance, and parenting/early childhood resources — fielded more than 6,000 calls for assistance with housing and shelter, according to Jolin.
The city is working toward some solutions, though they involve more shelter space and affordable housing units, not rent control, a practice prohibited by the state.
“Mayor Hales has been working with partners to open traditional indoor shelter spaces as well as alternative outdoor shelter spaces — the first new shelters in a decade,” says Sara Hottman, the mayor’s communications director.
Hottman says the mayor is also working on opening an outdoor shelter site — the Kalbrener Property in Lents, near the Springwater Corridor, that is projected to house up to 100 campers.
For now, she says, the month-long extension ahead of the cleanup is giving social service providers extra time to connect with those still on the corridor “in hopes that they can help get people into 45 available beds at Rescue Mission, and 10 set-aside beds at Hansen Shelter.”
That’s nowhere near what’s needed for every person camping on the trail, a fact Hottman acknowledges, but she adds that “partners are working to open another 400 beds elsewhere by the fall.”
“No displacement without replacement” was painted on several signs and chanted by protesters at a rally in front of City Hall last Thursday, which aimed to “Stop the Sweeps.” Protesters also cited the problem of rising rents.
Austin Rose, a PTU organizer, bellowed over a megaphone what has become a slogan, but also what equates to a real pressure for many: “All of us are one rent hike away from being homeless.”
Demands to Hales
Activists delivered the following demands to City Hall ahead of the Springwater Corridor cleanup:
• Do not sweep the trail
• Relocation, not displacement
• Accommodate disabilities and other mobility constraints
• Stop seizing possessions
• Stop criminalizing homelessness
• Deploy storage units before relocations
• Meet with Springwater Corridor houseless people
• Legalize private hosting of people lacking permanent housing
• Impose a real estate development tax to fund social services
Originally published at portlandtribune.com.
