The emergency order follows news that homeless people accounted for 1/3 of all 2021 traffic fatalities.
Mayor Ted Wheeler issued an emergency declaration prohibiting camping along freeways and designated high crash network streets within Portland on Friday, Feb. 4.
The order directs the Impact Reduction Team that cleans up homeless camps to prioritize them for removal.
"This is a matter of urgency. People are dying. That is why I'm using my executive authority," said Wheeler, who promised other executive actions addressing livability issues in the near future.
The order follows the release of report by the Portland Bureau of Transportation on Wednesday that said homeless people accounted for nearly one-third of all traffic fatalities in Portland in 2021. That spiked to 50% of the 10 fatalities in January, according to the Portland Police Bureau.
Wheeler said the city has seen unsanctioned camping in "clearly unsafe locations, sometimes jarringly close to roads and freeways."
"You don't need to be a traffic engineer to sense that that's not safe," he said. "Now, the traffic engineers confirm our instincts.
The order takes effect at 3 p.m. Friday. It was challenged by a coalition of 22 advocacy groups even before Wheeler announced it.
"[We] strongly object to the emergency declaration to sweep encampments and further displace unhoused community members from alongside our most dangerous roads. The presence of unhoused people does not make our streets unsafe; rather poor roadway design, ongoing neglect and deferred maintenance, recklessness in the form of speeding, operating a vehicle while impaired by drugs or alcohol and other dangerous behavior are all well-documented reasons why there is this alarming uptick in deaths," said a letter sent to Wheeler before his press conference signed by groups that includes Oregon Walks, Central City Concern, The Street Trust, Urban League of Portland and Northwest Pilot Project.
When asked by reporters about where those who are homeless are supposed to go, Wheeler responded, "The answer I have is 'somewhere safer.'"
Wheeler added the city has vacant beds in its shelters and is working to reserve more for those whose camps are cleared from the areas.
The traffic fatality figures for the previous year were included in the Vision Zero Crash Report 2021 that was released on Wednesday, Feb. 2. The percent of homeless people killed in Portland traffic crashes spiked in January.
Half of the 10 people who died in crashes were homeless in the first month 2022, according to the Portland Police Bureau. Police said four of the homeless people who died were pedestrian and the fifth was killed in a vehicle-to-vehicle crash.
That compares to around one-third in all of last year, as reported by the Portland Bureau of Transportation. The bureau said that 63 people were killed in crashes on Portland streets last year, the highest number in three decades. Nearly one-third of them — 19 — were homeless. They accounted for 70% of the 27 pedestrians killed in 2021.
The statistics were included in the Vision Zero Crash Report 2021 released by PBOT on Wednesday, Feb. 2.
According to the report, 27 other people died in motor vehicles and nine died on motorcycles last year.
The City Council approved the Vision Zero plan in 2016 to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious crashes by 2025. Instead, fatalities have increased every year since then. The previous annual reports had not before identified homeless people as a subset of other pedestrians.
"PBOT has not tracked the housing status of victims in the past, but these numbers in 2021 stood out and represent an alarming pattern we'll track more closely in the future," the report said.
The high crash corridors have been identified by PBOT as the most dangerous streets where the most serious happen most often. The account for approximately 8% of all city streets.
Shortly before the press conference, Wheeler and Commissioner Dan Ryan also announced a new rule to prohibit camping within 150 feet of city-sanctioned Safe Rest Villages and along streets between them and the nearest transit stop. It is effective immediately.
Ryan has proposed creating six city-sanctioned managed homeless camps called Safe Rest Villages in the city. The new rule is intended to provide a buffer around the sites that will help keep them and surrounding neighborhoods safe and clean, the announcement said.
"Villagers need safety and breathing room to begin their journey toward stability. By enforcing a buffer, we will prevent triggering incidents which may lead to relapse. Together, we can give in-house Portlanders the trauma-informed support they need and make our community safer. We need helpful for the neighborhoods and for villagers building residence," Ryan said.
The announcement also followed the release of a survey by the Portland Business Alliance that found voters consider homelessness the most pressing probably in the Portland region. In response to an open-ended question, 45% of voters said homelessness is the biggest issue facing our area at this time, up from 24% of voters in 2017 who cited it as the top issue. That compares to 24% who now say crime is the biggest issue, up from merely 1% as late as January 2020.
The survey also found that 83% of voters in the region support requiring people who are currently living outside to sleep in shelters or designated camping locations. That includes 79% of Portland voters and 86% of voters in the remaining tri-county region.
Strong support for this proposal is shared by groups who might otherwise disagree on policy matters, the alliance said. Regardless of age, gender, race, educational attainment, or even political affiliation, a minimum of three in four voters in every demographic group supports this proposal to address homelessness.
The most recent annual alliance was survey on Jan. 28. It was conducted by DHM Research among 500 voters in the Tribune-county region from Dec. 9 to Dec.15, 2021. They included 250 voters in the Portland and 250 voters from Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties who do not live within the city boundary.
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Wheeler prohibits camping along freeways and high crash streets - Pamplin Media Group
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