A well-kept secret in the homeless camping community is no more, and the city has taken notice.
Longtime campers say, in the last couple of weeks, the number of RVs and cars parked along North Union Court at Delta Park has tripled.
“It’s just more and more, and it’s getting trashier and trashier and trashier,” said Michelle Wilhite.
Wilhite and her family have been staying in an RV along that road for four months.
It started after she lost her job and was evicted from her rental house.
She says she came to Delta Park for peace & quiet, but what started as a few RVs has ballooned “overnight”.
Thursday she realized the park’s newfound popularity would come with consequences.
She and other campers were given 72 hours to vacate.
The deadline was 2 p.m. Sunday.
Wilhite says the problem is, places that allow a person to legally park RVs are hard to come by in Portland, and so is help.
“If I don't look like I haven't washed in a month, and I don't have a drug problem, then they really don't care,” she said. “I've gone to DHS and said ‘I have two kids. I don't want to take them to a shelter. That's just scary.’ And they said 'Call the hotline.'”
Park-goers say they feel for those who are struggling, but the size of the camping community, along with the disregard for anti-camping laws, worry them.
“We have those laws for a reason, so I do wish they could be enforced,” said Jina Boyer, who plays volleyball near the park. “But I understand we have such a problem right now that it's just out of control.”
Staff with Mayor Charlie Hales’ office have said before they want to find properties where people can legally camp in their RVs or cars.
KGW reached out to Hales’ staff, as well as officials with Multnomah County, to ask how that search is going.
As of 5 p.m. Sunday, we had not received a response.