PORTLAND, Ore. — Dustin cradles six raspberry-flavored bottles of water, a skateboard and a rain-soaked trash bag filled with bedding down the sidewalk of Southwest 14th Avenue on Thursday afternoon. His site was being cleared by Portland camp removal crews, and he decided to leave most everything else behind, including his tent — a sign that his tolerance for street life is running out.
“I’m tired of it. I’m just tired of it,” Dustin said. This was the ninth time his camp has been removed in the past year, and it somehow always happens to him when it's raining.
“This one, I’m actually taking kind of hard,” he added, fighting back tears. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to get moved again. I’m tired of it.”
Several miles away near Multnomah Village, that same fear weighs heavily on the top of Oscar’s mind, whose camp was also cleared this week. He had enough money to briefly escape removal crews by staying in a hotel for a few nights.
“I plan on napping today. I got one more night here, and then, I’ll figure it out,” Oscar said.
His tent and tarp lay on the floor by the foot of his hotel bed: “This is my little island right now,” he said.
“It’s scary. Basically, these people are our friends,” said Manny Frishberg. He’s one of about 20 people who make up a volunteer neighborhood outreach group, SW Outreach, that helps people like Oscar. “We’re not case managers. We’re not social workers, but we are acting as friends and advocates.”
The group is in contact with about 75 homeless people by handing out tents and tarps and trying to get them into shelters. Camp removals, they say, make their efforts harder.
“Frankly, it’s hard to keep track of them if they are being swept and moved every week. We can try to keep track of them … but by and large, we just have to go out and look,” Frishberg said.
A spokesperson for Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler's office told KGW they are unfamiliar with this volunteer outreach group and that it's important to the city that outreach workers are “trained, have extensive experience, are trauma-informed, and educated on citywide resources available as they provide more than just points of contact.”
The mayor's office continued, saying that their outreach workers “are able to connect people living on the streets with immediately available shelters and other resources.” If camps are being removed, city and or county outreach workers are in the field making contact, Wheeler's office said.
A KGW crew at that Southwest 14th Avenue camp removal Thursday morning did not see outreach workers on scene. Portland police were called by the camp removal crews when a couple refused to leave their tent. When officers arrived, the couple moved on. It’s unclear if they were offered any shelter.
When the KGW crew asked Dustin if outreach workers had connected with him, he said, “No, ma’am…They’ve approached me and my neighbors that I’ve seen twice, and they’ve never followed through.”
These patchwork efforts are happening as talks are heating up inside city hall around the mayor’s newly updated daytime camping ban where if someone refuses shelter, they will face fines and or a week in jail.
Dustin sees that impending rule as a sign for him to make a change.
“My neighbors just got approved for housing, so maybe that’s the right thing to do,” Dustin said.