By Marshall Hammond
On November 1 Portland law enforcement resumed enforcing a camping ban aimed at reducing the number of unhoused people sheltering in tents and other impermanent structures in the city’s public spaces, and moving the residents to overnight shelters.
Enforcement of the ordinance, which had been passed unanimously by City Council in May 2024, resumed after Mayor Wilson paused enforcement last February to allow for the development of more overnight shelter beds and to refine a “service-first approach.”
The ordinance prohibits camping in public spaces when an individual has access to “reasonable alternative shelter.” It also bars camping by anyone who has declined such an offer. In addition, the measure clarifies the legal definition of camping and establishes “manner” restrictions that limit certain activities at campsites. These include using a gas stove, storing belongings more than two feet from a tent or keeping multiple bicycles or vehicles near a campsite.
The Mayor’s office stressed that the enforcement of the camping ban is focused on connecting people with shelters, deflection centers or other services, rather than levying criminal penalties such as fines or jail time.
“I’ve asked our police to issue citations for lawbreaking behavior and actions that harm our community,” said Wilson. “No one will be arrested simply for camping, nor should they.”
According to city data, between November 1 when the camping ban enforcement resumed and November 13, officials contacted 178 people at 101 campsites. A total of 52 people were arrested and 72 outstanding warrants were served. Meanwhile, 55 people accepted services and moved into overnight shelters and four entered deflection programs.
Supporters of the mayor’s approach argue that the camping ban not only makes the city safer and cleaner but can also save lives by moving people out of harsh weather conditions and connecting them with needed services. Rob Layne of Portland Solutions told KGW that enforcing the ban could be a “lifesaving intervention to keep people from dying.”
Critics argue the ban is inhumane, destabilizing and effectively criminalizes homelessness, making life even harder for those cited. Advocates note that a $100 fine is often impossible for unhoused people to pay, leading to additional penalties and deeper financial strain. They also warn that the stress of repeated sweeps can increase the risk of suicide or overdose. An investigation by ProPublica and Street Roots found that four times as many homeless Portlanders died in 2023, during a period of intensified sweeps, compared with 2019.
Others contend that the camping ban does little to reduce homelessness itself and that public resources would be better invested in affordable housing, rental and food assistance and other support services.
City Councilors Mitch Green and Angelita Morillo both issued statements condemning the practice of homeless sweeps. The day after Mayor Wilson’s office announced the resumption of the camping ban enforcement, Green’s office released a press release in which Green compared Wilson’s efforts to those of President Donald Trump.
“We have seen ICE and the National Guard perform homeless sweeps in other cities where they’ve been deployed, and we’ve heard Trump calling for increased sweeps and even disappearance of unhoused people,” said Green. “It is a bad, cruel and failed policy when the Trump administration does it, and it is a bad, cruel and failed policy when the city of Portland does it.”
“The Mayor’s plan to continue sweeping our unhoused neighbors is not only morally bankrupt, it is empirically a failure,” said Councilor Angelita Morillo. “Do we want to further traumatize and destabilize people, or do we want to stabilize them with the direct aid they need right now?”
On November 10, Morillo and Green announced an amendment to the Fall Technical Adjustment Ordinance, the city’s midyear budget fix. The proposal—called Morillo 1—would cut $4.35 million from the $14.7 million Impact Reduction Program, which handles homeless camp cleanups and trash removal. Part of the savings would fund emergency rental assistance, food aid and immigrant rights groups.
According to the press release, the budget cuts would apply to “programs whose primary purpose is the forced displacement of persons or the seizure of their property without consent,” while protecting funds for trash cleanup, sanitation services and other public health measures.
Wilson responded in a public email warning that up to four million pounds of “biohazard materials” could be left uncollected if the amendment passed, and that the city would be forced to lay off “up to 100 workers.”
The issue was decided on November 12 during a lengthy council meeting that included public testimony and a tense exchange between Morillo and Wilson. The amendment ultimately failed, receiving five votes in favor and three against, with three councilors absent. The budget adjustment ordinance moved forward for further review without the Morillo 1 amendment.
Between 2023 and 2025, Multnomah County’s homeless population grew 67 percent to 10,526, according to a January Point-in-Time Count by the tri-county region and Portland State University. Researchers attributed some of the jump to improved data collection, but also pointed to a 33 percent rise in evictions in Multnomah County during the same period. More recent figures from Multnomah County’s Homeless Services Department estimate more than 16,000 people in the county are currently experiencing homelessness.
The county currently has a little less than 3,000 shelter beds, more than 1,000 of which were added this year.
The chronic one-sidedness of Southeast Examiner’s reporting on issues of houselessness is journalistically unconscionable, and this article is no exception from its headline through to its glaringly unbalanced sourcing.
How can these “sweeps” resume “despite resistance from City Council,” when seven of our twelve councilors — well more than half — did not resist enforced removals of unsanctioned campsites? Some (e.g. Councilor Zimmerman) even made clear that their absence was intended as a vote of explicit contempt against Morillo’s amendment. And where are the perspectives of residents and neighborhoods throughout Southeast whose everyday lives were, and in many locations still are, traumatized and destabilized by the random violence and crime unsanctioned camping has incontestably inflicted upon our communities?
Even statistics cited in this article are disingenuous. As just one example, that $4.35 million cut to the Impact Reduction Program’s budget, coming as it would have this late in the fiscal year, would not have been merely a cut to their $14.7 million operating fund, but would have effectively defunded the bulk of their operations well into early next year, leaving encampments to form and persist and enlarge with impunity. Or for an even more egregious instance of poor reporting: the fact that four times as many unhoused Portlanders died in 2023 as in 2019, taken in conjunction with the fact that there were more camp clearances in 2023 than in 2019, does not in any way show that those deaths were due to camp clearances. Nor is there any research proving conclusively they were. (There is, in fact, research that strongly indicates the contrary: leaving unhoused people out on the street is far more closely correlated with increased mortality.) Correlation is not causation, and a reporter oblivious to that fundamental logical principle should refrain from reporting at all.
Houselessness is a deadly serious enough issue, for those who fall into it (or, as this article rightly notes, are pushed into it by eviction!) and those who must then contend with the fierce knock-on impacts. The Southeast Examiner does an extreme disservice in addressing that issue with reportage that is all too frequently half-baked, prone to sentimentality, and implicitly partisan. Please do better.
While I disagree with your view, Jun, you are welcome to it. This is a contentious issue all the way around and there are no quick fixes to a long-standing problem. It should be noted that the statistics cited were not created by the writer; those come from the city, county, ProPublica and Street Roots.