THE TIRELESS FAITHFUL who make up the North Tabor Neighborhood Association found themselves being tugged in different directions when they convened earlier this month.
Before the group were two proposals for how North Tabor—and every other Portland neighborhood—should respond to what many think is an inevitability: the spread of organized encampments beyond the small enclaves of downtown’s Right 2 Dream Too and Overlook’s Hazelnut Grove.
First, the North Tabor group had a form letter sent along by the Overlook Neighborhood Association (OKNA). The Overlookers have been fighting to oust the Hazelnut Grove camp from its city-owned perch on North Greeley, with no success.
So the OKNA has come up with a list of demands for Mayor Charlie Hales’ office it hopes other associations sign onto. Most are reasonable—asking the city to require sanctioned camps to abide by a code of conduct, for instance, or setting a maximum occupancy on any organized encampments that emerge as the city grapples with its housing crisis.
But one provision of the letter has seemed universally odious to people I’ve talked to around the city.
The OKNA wants Hales’ assurance that the city will take down the full legal name of anyone who stays in a permitted camp. That would result in publicly available lists, allowing neighbors to conduct their own vigilante background checks for anyone at a city-sanctioned camp.