Everybody, regardless of income, needs a safe home to build stable lives — from getting a job to creating a safe space for our children to grow up in. But high costs and inequality continue to drive our houselessness crisis and Portlanders’ patience is wearing thin. We all want solutions, but let’s be clear: Camping bans do not solve houselessness, support services and housing do.
Portland City Council recently unanimously passed an ordinance that bans public camping if “reasonable alternate shelter” is available. Under the ordinance, public camping could be punished with either a $100 fine or up to seven days in jail.
Unfortunately, criminalizing unhoused people is becoming a norm. In Grants Pass v. Johnson, the U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether punishing someone for sleeping outside is a violation of their constitutional rights, if a shelter bed is not available. If the justices decide for Grants Pass, we can expect to see a rise in armed police arresting and fining unhoused people at a national scale.
Wheeler said the Portland ordinance is a “significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to manage public spaces effectively.” Managing public spaces is a fine goal, when we’re talking about trash and graffiti. But when we’re talking about fellow Portlanders, we cannot remove their humanity from the conversation. Sweeps and camping bans are a quick fix. They temporarily shift tents from one city block to another, but they do not ultimately put a roof over someone’s head. Rather, these policies create greater barriers to finding housing. As Scott Kerman at the Blanchet House recently said, a $100 fine to the people we serve might as well be $100,000.
Meanwhile, studies show policies that involuntarily displace unhoused people lead to more deaths and hospitalization. And if armed police start clearing tents, unhoused people can be harmed. About 50% of the arrests over four years, leading up to 2022, were of unhoused people. Enforcement of this ordinance will likely increase over-policing, wasting public dollars that could be better used to solve serious crime.
Though city officials say enforcement will include outreach to connect people to shelters, this is unjust especially when considering the dire straits of our shelter system. A recent audit found that Portland’s shelter system is failing to serve as the safetynet our community needs. There are long waitlists and not enough beds. Accessing a shelter bed is confusing, time-consuming and discouraging. Additionally, many unhoused individuals come from life experiences that make congregate shelter unsafe. Rather than ban camping, Portland could increase voluntary use of shelters by investing in more shelter beds, making the system easier to navigate and building specialized, trauma-informed shelters — especially for youth, people escaping domestic violence and families. With more people finding shelter that meets their needs, camping would decrease naturally.
The audit also revealed that even if someone is able to access a shelter bed, they are more likely to end up back on the streets than in housing. Once someone enters the region’s spectrum of services, we should be doing everything we can to ensure they can move into permanent housing. Often, the needs include rental assistance, support establishing veterans or social security benefits, and mental health and substance use treatment.
With multiple governments sharing responsibility and so many challenges, solutions can feel elusive. But it’s possible to solve houselessness without criminalizing it. Washington County eliminated homeless encampments by investing their Supportive Housing Services dollars in outreach and case management. Rather than sweep encampments, workers in Washington County prioritized connecting individuals with services and housing. Granted, Washington County’s houseless population is much smaller than Multnomah County’s. But larger cities like New Orleans, Houston and Minneapolis are also solving houselessness through strategies that prioritize housing and services that allow folks to stay housed.
There’s a lot of reason to be optimistic in Portland. We are flush with unanticipated tax dollars from the Metro Supportive Housing Services measure, which have been slow to get out the door. Metro is also exploring new funding options for affordable housing, with the 2018 bond fully allocated. We have the opportunity to create innovative and humane solutions throughout the full spectrum of services — from eviction prevention and emergency shelter to affordable housing and homeownership programs. Portland needs our city, county and state leaders to invest in proven solutions that lead to more people with homes, rather than debt and arrest records.
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