Portland homeless nonprofits say they need help to meet expected increase in demand following daytime camping ban

Portland nonprofits that aid those experiencing homelessness worry they won’t be able to meet what they expect will be an increase in demand when the Portland City Council’s new daytime camping ban takes effect.

Under the ban, which takes force in early July, unhoused Portlanders will only be allowed to camp from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. in certain areas of the city and will be required to dismantle their campsites during the day. People who violate the rules more than two times – or more than twice build fires, obstruct private property or leave trash around campsites – could face fines of up to $100 or up to 30 days in jail, according to the ordinance.

City officials have said they plan to begin by educating members of the public about the new rules and to warn, rather than cite, violators during the ban’s early weeks. Officials also acknowledge the city and its contractors lack the personnel to broadly enforce the new rule, given that many thousands of campers live unsheltered across the city’s 144 square miles.

More than a week after the city adopted the ban on a 3 to 1 vote, many unhoused people have yet to be informed of the ordinance, according to multiple unsheltered Portlanders. Those who have learned about it wonder where they and their belongings can exist during the day, especially since the city’s long-promised mass alternative shelter for 150 people has yet to open north of Southeast Powell Boulevard.

“There is no place for us to go during the day,” said Brandie Bryson, 39, who is currently unhoused in Portland’s Old Town neighborhood. “We are constantly being told we have to move, but women have to stay up all night to protect themselves and sleep during the day.”

Legal experts say the ordinance is not in line with the intent of a federal 9th Circuit Court decision known as Martin v. Boise, that determined it was cruel and unusual punishment to fine or arrest homeless people for sleeping on public property when a city doesn’t have enough shelter beds to accommodate them all.

Portland homelessness nonprofits that offer daytime respite feel they weren’t given adequate time to prepare nor were they given any resources to help scale up their offerings. Those centers typically offer food, clothes, showers, a place to sit and connections to other resources like housing assistance.

“A week before this (ordinance) was being brought before city council, I wasn’t even aware of it,” said Katie O’Brien, executive director of Rose Haven, a homelessness resource center that serves women. “We are seeing 130 to 150 people a day in our little center here – that’s a 150% increase in just the last three years.”

Rose Haven, which is open to the public from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m., does not offer overnight shelter or cots for people to sleep on but provides a place where women can get their basic needs met.

A week before the city council voted on the ordinance, Rose Haven had to stop letting people in for the first time in their 26 years of operation because they were over capacity, O’Brien said. A line of women stood outside the building waiting for their turn to get in.

O’Brien said she had a couple meetings with Skyler Brocker-Knapp, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s lead adviser on homelessness. But O’Brien said Brocker-Knapp didn’t offer financial support that would allow Rose Haven to catch some of the fallout from the new camping ban.

Cody Bowman, a spokesperson for Wheeler’s office, said as the city phases in enforcement, city officials will evaluate the impact on nonprofits.

“Funding opportunities are on the table,” he said.

Scott Kerman, director of Blanchet House, which provides meals three times a day to unhoused Portlanders, said he is evaluating how his nonprofit might be able to expand daytime services including adding more peer support workers, serving more people during meal times and accommodating people bringing their tents and possessions with them.

“Resources and financial support from our public jurisdictions would be critical, of course,” he said.

Outside of finding realistic places for unhoused people to go during the day, nonprofit leaders and people with lived experience worry about other logistics. O’Brien wonders how the city can require people with physical and mental challenges to take down and put up a tent every day, which is not always simple, especially for the many aging and disabled unhoused Portlanders, she said.

She and Kerman also want to know where people will be able to store their belongings during the day if they need to travel around or go to a job interview – both organizations don’t have the physical space to offer daytime storage.

Currently, the city operates just two daytime storage sites where residents can leave their items for later retrieval. One is a retrofitted cargo container at the west end of the Steel Bridge while the other, in North Portland, is just for people who live in the tiny home community of Hazelnut Grove, according to the city’s information page.

The ordinance is likely to push people without homes further into hidden areas to avoid punishment, making it harder for outreach workers to deliver critical supplies and for caseworkers to find their clients, O’Brien said. Shen especially fears for women, who are most vulnerable at night.

“We aren’t designed as a place for people to sleep but some of our folks come here in the morning and spend the first couple hours just resting,” O’Brien said. “Almost all of our guests living outside have experienced abuse before, so staying up all night is necessary for them.”

Bryson, who is living unsheltered in Old Town, said while she has a boyfriend, which adds some protection, they have trouble finding available overnight shelter beds for couples, which means they sleep on the sidewalk most nights. And for her part, she likes to stay up late doing schoolwork and sleep in past 8 a.m. in the mornings. Bryson is working on completing an online degree.

“Women have it way worse out here,” Bryson said. “Crazy shit happens to women and there are not enough resources for females.”

Nicole Hayden reports on homelessness for The Oregonian/OregonLive. She can be reached at nhayden@oregonian.com.