PORTLAND, Ore. — Near a residential neighborhood in far-flung Southeast Portland, tensions have been rising between local residents and the people living in a entrenched homeless camp, making the road they occupy a more dangerous place for everyone involved.
Underneath tarps and tents on Wednesday was a dog fighting through pain after being hit by a car outside the camp. His owner, Lacey, carried him and tried to tend to his wounds, which included a broken leg and an open gash.
“He’s on antibiotics, he’s on pain meds ... like, he’s my baby, he’s my son,” Lacey said.
This happened after Lacey moved to the homeless camp on Southeast Knapp Street between Mount Scott Boulevard and 105th Avenue.
“The lady who hit my dog slowed down and then just gunned it and ran right over him and then she left after,” Lacey explained.
The long row of RVs and tents are a sign the camp has been around for years, and homeless people there say they are now being targeted.
“It's terrible," Lacey said. "Cars come by super fast, they try to hit us … I don’t want to be out here. No one really wants to be out here,” Lacey said.
“They go flying by, a lot of times they try to get as close to us as they possibly can. It’s just ridiculous,” added James, who lives with Lacey and has been homeless for seven years.
A few streets away, in a nearby neighborhood, children play at a daycare run by Angie Toops, who has watched the camp grow.
“Over the last few years, it has definitely gotten progressively worse. We have garbage and stuff impeding into the street and it’s getting out of hand,” Toops said.
The tension between the neighbors and the residents of the homeless camp has been running high. A KGW crew saw it firsthand Wednesday, when a woman driving through the camp — which has taken up nearly half of the road — stopped to express her frustration with those staying there. The interaction backed up traffic, and shortly after someone drove through and purposefully peeled out, leaving behind tire marks and a plume of white smoke.
It’s something that happens often, those at the camp said.
“This is really bad right now. I mean this is like a war zone. It could be a war zone,” said Nancy Shannon, who lives in a nearby neighborhood and often drives past the camp.
“We didn’t start coming out into the street until they started trying to hit us,” Lacey explained of their barricade of cones, scrap metal, bins of food and cans.
“I do feel for them, 100% I feel for them but it’s scary,” Shannon said.
Neighbors like Shannon have called the city numerous times about the camp. “I never get calls back. No one ever reaches out, and you feel really defeated,” Toops said.
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office told KGW Wednesday that the site was posted for removal.
“They tag them, which they just did, and then they come and clean them up. Well, two hours later they’re back,” Shannon said.
“We just get the same old story. Nothing has changed in three and a half years. I’m dealing with the same thing,” added Toops.
The redundancy of it all is taking its toll on everyone.
“Constantly having to move every month is not only draining but detrimental to mental health,” said Lacey.
“They put me on waiting lists and I just sit and wait,” added James.
The complex problem is playing out in neighborhoods across Portland. Recent data shows that in the last week of July, the city received more than 2,500 campsite reports. They removed about 150 of them. Out of all those camps, 14 people spent at least one night in a shelter.
“It’s like whack-a-mole — they don’t know where to go first, because there’s so much of it in our city,” said Toops.
KGW asked Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office if the camp on Knapp Street would be targeted under the city’s new camping ban, but did not immediately hear back.