Today’s Mercury slips in a bit of news that broke too late to make a full story, but should interest you nonetheless.
Mayor Charlie Hales’ office announced yesterday the city has hired “clean-up contractors” to oversee the contentious and time-consuming task of dismantling homeless campsites on city land. Local security company Pacific Patrol Services (PPS) nabbed a three-month contract to break up illegal sites. (You may be familiar with PPS employees from their presence on city parks property or the occasional skateboard attack on a teen.)
Nothing’s new, necessarily, in how these sweeps will go down—campsite removal has been a priority of the mayor’s since last year. But Hales’ spokesman Dana Haynes said yesterday that those efforts have been unwieldy to coordinate, and that bureaus controlling land where illegal sites popped up were sometimes too busy to push them out right away.
The PPS contract, it’s hoped, will bring some consistency to the practice. It might bring greater frequency to campsite sweeps, as well, though that will be tough to confirm. One of the reasons Hales’ office pursued the contract, Haynes explained, is that there’s been difficulty in getting solid data around homeless sweeps conducted among city bureaus (it’s not always cops that break up campsites). And items that were confiscated from sites—many of which need to be held for 30 days under state law—weren’t always easy to track down.
“A hodgepodge is the only way to describe it,” Haynes said. “What is changing is we’re hoping we’ll have more communication.”
The contract won’t exceed $115,000, according to Wendy Gibson, sustainable operations and maintenance manager in the Portland Office of Management and Finance. But a copy of the document [PDF], obtained by the Mercury this morning, actually calls for the clean up services to max out at $35,162.
Gibson said she wasn’t sure where that number came from, and that the contract may have to be amended. The agreement—which was signed last week and took effect on Tuesday—lasts only three months, but it’s possible it will be extended into the fiscal year that begins July 1 (if city council agrees).
It works like this: PPS will respond to campsites on city land once alerted by a bureau. In order to legally dismantle a site, officials need to post warning at least 24 hours in advance. The clean-up must be completed within seven days of that posting, Gibson said. The city’s goal is within 48 hours.
Under the agreement, PPS has the option of contracting with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, which would have inmates complete the cleanup (a controversial issue, of late). But Gibson says the security company has indicated it will likely perform the clean up with its own staffers.
PPS is also required to document thoroughly all items it confiscates and throws away, and to submit pictures of campsites before cleaning them up. If the site’s resident is on hand, workers must give them an hour to take their possessions before work commences. And PPS will maintain a repository—on a site the city provides—where homeless people can arrange to pick up their belongings.
The record keeping should bring more certainty to the circumstances behind Portland’s homeless sweeps, which have drawn outrage from some homeless advocates in recent months. Stories frequently emerge of homeless people having IDs and other important items confiscated, but those tales are nearly impossible to confirm.
And there’s also the chance that increased sweeps—if that’s what this contract brings—would put more people in touch with social services. In compliance with state law, PPS will notify JOIN, a local homeless outreach organization, when clean-up notices have been posted. That gives the organization an opportunity to offer assistance to campers. Again, though, that was already protocol on clean-ups before the new contract.
One other facet of this—and something that Police Chief Mike Reese harped on in his ill-fated Prosper Portland proposal: the city’s working to coordinate between its various land-owning bureaus (transportation, parks and environmental services, for instance) and outside agencies like ODOT and the Oregon Department of State Lands, to try to ensure campsite laws are enforced with some consistency.
That discussion’s just beginning.
Is there a website where we can apply to have campsites in our neighborhood cleaned up? I’d love to get them over here picking up the garbage that the drunken bums who have moved into the abandoned lot next door are strewing all over the place. (note to editor drunken bum is not an insult it is a clear description based on the number of broken pints of alcohol at the dump site) It is also ridiculous that anyone is required to hold onto the stolen shopping carts full of filth for any length of time when they clean up one of these sites.
Econoline, you should make whatever types of nuisance complaints you think might apply. They city will start sending notices to the property owner and hopefully get them off their butts to do something with the property, fence it, sell it, whatever.
Good work Hales! Keep it up. Between your stepped-up enforcement of quality of life downtown, and reducing urban renewal, you’re definitely working on getting my vote next time.
of interest.
why dont you ask JOIN what percentage of the time they usually get informed of the sweeps beforehand.
My, what a shiny happy society we have here, heartless hipsters! I saw an old lady in a blue dress flying a sign on 82nd today. She could’ve been any one of our Grandmothers. Before you all break your hands patting yourselves on your over-privileged backs, tell our failed Maybury Mayor that we over here on “the other side of the river” (you know, the Detroit side?)…that we still need some sidewalks, or even some paved streets? This is a broken city and we need to help our less privileged, not hire goons to sweep them out of view. Funny how quality-of-life money can always be found to rid the Santa Barbara side of such “filth.”
Another stupid attempt to punish the people who now find themselves on the street and just want some kind of safety. This ill-fated program will just waste money and not solve anything. This is another PR stunt by a mayor who thinks he has a future in politics, he and his buddies on the council fish and saltzman do not have a future. There are people who have real solutions to solving or moving in a positive way, but they are not at the table. This program will just anger activists who try to help and get some lazy civil rights lawyers off their butts and into federal court to stop this madness. Where is the ACLU, the Lawyers Guild, the lawyers who make money suing the cops? The activists are fighting hales but I don’t see many lawyers doing “pro-bono” work. Would someone take this guy hales to federal court and kick his ass; hurting the most vulnerable among us who are veterans, mothers, children, and people who are hurting the most guarantee hales and his buddies a special place in hell. Speaking of hell, where are you good Christians when we need your love? out to lunch with the mayor?
I am not an addict. I don’t have mental health issues. I can only work in short spurts because of a health condition that is not on the list for automatic aproval for ssi. (Narcolepsy) I’ve been fighting for ssi for 2 years now. My time at the womens shelter SAFES is almost up and I am collecting gear to keep me warm and dry outside. There is ONE year round shelter for single women in porttland. That’s 50 beds. The extra spaces for winter programs are about to end and myself and many others will be out. If you saw me on the max you would have no idea I was homeless. Same with many others. And the ones that you can pick out? Think about how many of them you see, and now I’m going to tell you that they are the minority. Is it too much to ask to be able to have a safe place to live, even if you have no income? Are basic human rights only important when you have money? Did you see how much money they are going to spend on hiring goons to evict people? How about spending that money on treatment centers and affordable housing? Is that too much to ask? And for those of you who just want to judge, what would happen to you if you got sick or injured or lost your job, divorce even? Most of you would rely on the help of family members while you patch your life back together. ….but what if you don’t have family that can help, or no family at all? What would happen to you then?