PORTLAND, Ore. — As the weather turns cold this year, unhoused people face another challenge as the city of Portland cracks down on its homeless policies.
During a Monday press conference, Mayor Ted Wheeler said the new daytime ban on homeless camping will be enforced in two weeks. City council passed the ban back in June.
“Beginning on Nov. 13, the Portland Police Bureau will be authorized to enforce the ordinance,” Wheeler said.
That means people will no longer be allowed to camp on most public property between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Violation of that ordinance results in two written warnings. After that, people could face fines or jail time. Details beyond those were limited.
Wheeler said the city will begin a phased-in approach to enforcement and start with the city’s most problematic areas first. It’s not clear where those areas are, although the mayor stressed that he wants to target the central city.
Todd Littlefield, who lives in the Lents neighborhood, is not pleased. He said that the Lents area has been hit hard with homeless problems.
KGW tried getting answers from Portland police chief Bob Day, including if officers have been trained to enforce the ban, if they have access to housing resources, and how they’ll keep track of which homeless people have written warnings.
"I’m not going to say, just because I’m new here,” Day said.
He then passed it off to the city’s director of community safety, Stephanie Howard. She said city crews and police have spent months working on a camping ban enforcement protocol but didn’t say what that protocol was.
The city says they’ve spent the summer warning people about the ban, although KGW found many homeless people knew nothing about it.