Portland, Aurora and other cities push to control camping amid growing homeless crisis

PORTLAND, Ore. |  The tents proliferating on sidewalks in downtown and residential neighborhoods across Portland, Oregon, are fueling a debate that’s playing out in cities nationwide as the homelessness crisis in the U.S. explodes: Should camping be banned anywhere except in sanctioned sites?

Republican-led states including Texas and Missouri have passed laws in the past couple years prohibiting street camping while diverting money from affordable housing projects to short-term shelter solutions.

Aurora lawmakers continuing to create plans and legislation. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has pledged financial assistance and other state resources to cities and counties in an effort to deal with the problem.

For the most part, cities like Denver and Aurora have been loathe to evict campers, being accused of endangering lives, especially during extreme hot or cold weather.

That’s changing.

Now, after decades of struggling to tackle homelessness, some progressive West Coast cities are considering similar plans. Portland City Council members will vote Thursday on a proposal to create at least three large designated campsites and ban the rest of the roughly 700 encampments currently scattered across the city. More than 3,000 people are living without shelter in Portland, a 50% jump from 2019, according to the proposal.

“The magnitude and the depth of the homeless crisis in our city is nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said last month when he unveiled the plan. “We need to move our scattered, vulnerable homeless population closer to the services that they need.”

But opponents say the camping restrictions effectively criminalize homelessness and fail to address its root causes.

“As visible homelessness has increased, there is also an increase in pressure from the public and from others for elected officials and other folks in positions of authority to address that issue,” said Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “What’s starting to happen is that the way to immediately address an issue that is at its core an affordable housing problem is to try and remove people from public view.”

Aurora’s plan for homeless people and campers is evolving

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman last month offered an outline for addressing homelessness in the city, described as “work-first” for the fact that participation in drug treatment, employment programs and other services will be introduced as conditions for aid beyond emergency shelter and other essentials.

The plan adds to earlier legislation sponsored by Coffman that essentially bans un-approved homeless encampments on city property. That measure allows the city to evict campers with three-days notice. The city offers campers some type of group, tent or shelter accommodation when eviction notices are served.

City officials and local homeless activates say, so far, the vast majority of evicted Aurora campers simply move on to new un-sanctioned camp sites, often in Aurora.

Coffman’s new plan includes:

•  A central homeless campus for housing and other services

• Creating conditions for accessing transitional housing and incentives for using support services.
• Quantifying the city’s success at addressing homelessness based on the number of clients who have achieved self-sufficiency.
• Consolidating homelessness services into a single navigation center, which the city may wait to build until it secures the help of a private nonprofit.
• Offering employment services, emergency support and case management for the homeless.
• Developing a public communication strategy to educate the public about how the city’s program works and how they can support it.

“I fully understand that a singular approach will not meet the needs of everyone, such as those suffering from acute mental illness, and that other paths must also be recognized as viable,” the mayor said during a meeting last week.

“But the dominant direction for the city of Aurora will be to focus on getting those experiencing homelessness the care that they need that will enable them to become employed so that they can attain stable housing. … This approach is compassionate to those experiencing homelessness and fair to the taxpayers of our city.”

Coffman drafted the plan after he and other council members visited Houston and San Antonio to study those cities’ responses to homelessness. When it was presented during a study session last week, he invited other City Council members to give input on the plan.

Last week, Coffman went into greater detail about the navigation center, which he envisions will be located on a city-owned property near the Aurora Animal Shelter and the intersection of Chambers Road and East 32nd Avenue.

Unlike a traditional shelter, Coffman said the navigation center would be open all day, every day to homeless clients, as long as they are working with case managers and making progress toward securing housing. It would also allow clients to bring partners, pets and belongings with them, which otherwise turns many people off of the idea of congregate shelter.

The mayor said American Rescue Plan Act funds would be used for construction, with help from surrounding counties and the state. He said he hoped operating funds would come from individuals, foundations and government grants, and accepted an amendment by Bergan specifying that the campus will be operated by a nonprofit and prohibiting general fund dollars from being used for operations and maintenance.

Fellow Aurora City Council conservatives threatened to walk away from Coffman’s “work-first” plan, after the mayor worked to create consensus by endorsing amended language brought by progressives.

Councilmember Juan Marcano last week said he was uncomfortable with putting conditions on aid offered to the homeless. He argued it would lead to the city helping fewer people, and those those who need help most would be unable or unwilling to meet the demands of Coffman’s plan.

“I’m trying to ensure that in any project that we invest public resources, and our time, and our residents’ trust in, that we’re doing everything we can to serve the maximum population possible,” Marcano said.

“As we’re looking for partnership here with our surrounding jurisdictions, we need to ensure we’re not leaving folks out, and I would hate for us to lose this opportunity because we’re shutting the door on certain segments of the population.”

Coffman supported some of Marcano’s amendments, saying he did not think they significantly changed his plan and that he had spoken about them with a representative of the Colorado Springs Rescue Mission, which he described as a model for how the City of Aurora should approach homelessness.

Councilmember Francoise Bergan and others said they were committed to the original language in Coffman’s proposal that said homeless people must meet certain conditions before receiving more significant help, such as transitional housing.

“It does no good to put people in housing that are going to continue to have mental health problems, continue to have drug addiction problems, and never really fully realize their life,” Bergan said.

She and Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky threatened to vote “no” on the plan as a whole if Marcano’s amendments were incorporated into the plan.

Bergan and Jurinsky said they would not vote for the proposal if the “work-first” philosophy of the plan was eroded by Marcano’s amendments, and Coffman agreed to bring the plan back inNovember, with the amendments that he felt comfortable with worked into the plan.

Marcano also said he would return with a competing plan.

Besides the camping ban and a new look at assistance programs, city council conservatives have pushed for a local push to persuade residents not to give handouts to homeless people. Banning such donations is unconstitutional, and limiting areas where people can ask for handouts has been troublesome for lawmakers across the country.

Camping bans, however problematic, are growing.

Denver and Austin, Texas, have also passed ordinances both banning public camping and allowing sanctioned campsites.

Denver has opened several “safe outdoor spaces” since 2020 where tents, food and other services are provided.

In Austin, the Esperanza community is a sanctioned encampment that serves about 150 people and is currently constructing 200 individual shelter units.

Portland worries soar

Portland’s soaring homelessness has become a top concern for the vast majority of residents and has prompted legal action. A group of people with disabilities has sued the city over tents blocking sidewalks and making them inaccessible.

Portland’s proposal would establish at least three designated sites where camping would be allowed, with an initial capacity to serve about 150 people each. They would have 24-hour management and provide access to services such as food, hygiene, litter collection and treatment for mental health and substance abuse.

Outreach workers would direct people living on the street to the designated camping sites. Those who refuse could be cited, but the citations could be waived if the person takes part in a diversion program that would require mental health or substance abuse treatment in lieu of jail time.

The Cicero Institute, which wrote the model legislation that inspired many of the recent camping ban policies, says creating specific areas where camping is permitted can be a faster solution for cities compared to building affordable housing.

“One of the biggest problems that sanctioned camping is trying to address is just the unbelievable difficulty of getting more shovels in the ground to get shelter or other sorts or services available for the homeless,” said Judge Glock, the group’s senior director of policy and research.

“The answer can’t possibly be for these cities, wait two or three decades and we’re going to build enough permanent housing. In the meantime, we’re going to see tens of thousands of people die out on the streets,” Glock said.

But many homeless advocates say that a “housing first” approach is the only way to address the underlying factors that cause homelessness.

“Rounding people up with nowhere else to go is not only cruel and impractical, but forcing them into giant camps cannot possibly be a culturally competent or equitable situation,” Mark Guzman, founder of the food nonprofit MealsonUsPDX, said at a contentious Portland City Council meeting last week.

“If you truly want to end homelessness, the only way forward is with housing first,” said Guzman, who said he previously experienced homelessness himself. “People need love, compassion and resources to escape a situation of homelessness.”

— Sentinel Colorado contributed to this story