PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland crews are going on day three of removing a homeless encampment in Southeast Portland that’s been growing for years behind a neighborhood on Southeast Knapp Street and 105th Avenue.
A KGW crew was first there last week and witnessed tensions running high between neighbors and the homeless people. On Tuesday, city crews started the removal process, which has lasted three days. KGW found once a section got cleared, more homeless people moved in.
“It’s just a constant battle every day… I’m on the phone with 311 every day or every other day, and I was on the phone with them this morning about the new RV that’s already back,” said Angie Toops, who runs a daycare out of her home up the street.
A man named Avery lives out of that RV just moved in.
“I just came down here because I thought would be a place a motor home was welcome,” Avery explained.
However, that’s not what he found when he pulled up to Knapp Street: “Everybody was kicked out already from this area,” he said.
Avery decided to stay. His RV is now sandwiched between two new no-parking signs.
Avery left Clackamas County, where he explained officials were “hounding” him and removing RVs and decided to come to Multnomah County, where he heard it was easier to find a parking place, but that hasn’t been the case. He’s working to fix his makeshift motor home battery and get gas before the tow trucks come for him.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) gave him until Thursday morning. It was noon when KGW talked with him and PBOT had not showed up.
Down the street, John was also waiting on PBOT to see if his RV they towed during Tuesday's removal qualifies for the city’s shelter site for vehicles.
“They were supposed to call us back that day, and they never did,” John said Thursday.
Since Tuesday, he got his RV back from the tow yard and was back at Knapp Street picking up the friends he calls family that were left behind.
“They’re treating us like we’re all trash, and we’re not,” John said of the city’s camp removal teams.
Around the corner from Knapp Street along the Springwater Corridor trail was Lacey, whom KGW met last week after her dog was hit by a car driving past the camp.
“Well, pretty much, they threw away half my stuff,” Lacey said of Tuesday’s camp removal.
Among her stuff was an RV she just got. She watched PBOT tow it away. She moved what she had left which was shopping carts, a bike and some blue tarps to the trail instead of accepting an offer for up to two nights in a shelter, where she would have to leave her injured dog in a kennel which she didn’t want to do.
“How does that help? It’s literally going to get my stuff stolen," Lacey said. "They said, 'You can have shelter, but we can take you now; you’ll have to leave all your things' — and it’s like, who would want to do that?”
Lacey explained leaving her things to be potentially thrown out or stolen to go to shelter for two nights wasn't worth it to her.
A spokesperson for Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office told KGW crews are taking their time removing the Knapp Street encampment and testing materials they remove for asbestos along the way. It’s a response neighbors like Toops have been waiting for.
“I feel like we’ve made a little bit of momentum forward, at least,” Toops said.
“Everything that they’re doing isn’t helping us — it’s cutting us down and making the loop harder to get out,” Lacey said.
Despite Portland’s camping ban being in effect, no citations were handed out to people at the Knapp Street camp removal, even though people like Lacey didn’t accept shelter. Crews will continue to clear the street, and there are talks of barriers being put in to stop people from parking there.