The Portland City Council voted 3 to 1 on Wednesday to ban people from camping on public land during daytime hours within the city and to prohibit camping at all times near schools and other specific locations.
The ordinance, put forth by Mayor Ted Wheeler, comes as the city is seeking to comply by July 1 with a state law that requires local governments to write “objectively reasonable” rules to allow people to sit, lie, sleep and keep warm and dry on public property in places like Portland that don’t have enough shelter beds to serve all unhoused individuals.
Under the ordinance, people considered involuntarily homeless will only be allowed to camp from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. in certain areas and will be required to dismantle their campsites during the day. They will be restricted from pitching tents at any time near schools, day care centers, pedestrian plazas, shelter and construction sites, high-speed roads, parks, greenways and numerous other locations.
People who violate the rules more than two times — or more than twice build fires, obstruct private property or leave trash around campsites— could face fines of up to $100 or up to 30 days in jail, according to the ordinance.
The new rules will go into effect in 30 days, but the city doesn’t plan to begin enforcement until mid-July. Mayor Ted Wheeler said the city will spend the next few months focused on reaching out to unhoused individuals to educate them about the new rules.
“These reasonable restrictions, coupled with our work on increasing shelter availability along with access to services, are a step in the right direction toward a revitalized Portland,” Wheeler said prior to voting in favor of the ordinance.
The City Council’s approval of the new rules comes a week after more than 100 people testified during a five-hour hearing on the ordinance, with most speakers urging the city to not move forward with what many described as inhumane regulations.
The ordinance marks Wheeler’s latest aggressive attempt to limit where individuals experiencing homelessness sleep or place their belongings and comes as the city still doesn’t have anywhere close to the number of shelter beds available to meet the need of unhoused individuals.
There are more than 6,000 people experiencing homelessness in Multnomah County, according to this year’s federally required tally of unhoused people. Of those, nearly 4,000 are unsheltered.
The county has around 2,000 shelter beds, according to county data.
Portland is seeking to open a series of large city-regulated outdoor camps with the first slated to open this summer. But it’s unclear when others may open.
Portland’s Safe Rest Villages, which are smaller alternative shelters, have been slow to open since Portland Commissioner Dan Ryan first announced intentions to open six by the end of 2021. Only three have opened thus far while another two – the Queer Affinity and BIPOC villages – were revamped, relocated and brought under the umbrella of the Safe Rest Village Program. Another village has been built and is slated to open soon.
Given the history of that slow progress, quickly opening up even larger sites is ambitious.
Commissioner Carmen Rubio was the sole City Council member who voted against the ordinance Wednesday. She said the city shouldn’t have approved the measure until it built more shelter sites, expanded capacity at places where people can go during the day to get food, services and shelter, and trained police on how to carry out the new rules in a dignified manner.
“I need to make sure this ordinance does not cause harm,” Rubio said. “It is not clear to me if this ordinance maintains our prior commitment not to criminalize people who are homeless.”
Ryan and Commissioner Rene Gonzalez both said it is important that the city ensure that unhoused individuals who want help receive the services they need, but also said that the city needs to push out unhoused people who refuse services or commit crimes.
“We must be honest with ourselves, many people on the streets are refusing services,” Ryan said. “They need accountability.”
Gonzalez said he would have liked the ordinance to include even stricter rules against camping in certain locations, but added that “we’re not going to let perfect be the enemy of the good.”
A survey of 300 unsheltered Portlanders commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive in late 2021 found that 91% of them had experienced a sweep of their campsite. Of those, 95% said they were not offered temporary shelter, transitional or permanent housing or other services to meet their immediate needs though most reported in the survey wanting and needing help.
Since the survey was conducted, the city and county have increased shelter capacity and outreach efforts. However, those efforts haven’t been able to keep up with the county’s growth in homelessness.
The number of people experiencing homelessness in Multnomah County increased 20% from January 2022 to January 2023, from 5,228 to 6,297, the new federally mandated count found. That’s an alarming 57% increase from the 2019 count that occurred just before the start of the pandemic.
Commissioner Mingus Mapps was in Washington D.C. on Wednesday lobbying for transportation funding and did not cast a vote on the ordinance. However, he expressed support for the new rules.
“I support this time, place, and manner ordinance and alignment with requirements under House Bill 3115,” Mapps said in a statement prior to the vote. “Portlanders want a return to order, cleanliness, and peace on our streets.”
Unhoused Portlanders who don’t wish to carry their belongings with them during the day can use free day storage containers provided by the city. Those containers are often underutilized as many people experiencing homelessness either aren’t aware of the storage units, don’t trust their belongings will be safe or aren’t able to easily access the sites due to limited transportation, advocates have said.
Nicole Hayden reports on homelessness for The Oregonian/OregonLive. She can be reached at nhayden@oregonian.com.