This busy stretch along SE Powell
and 57th is no place to call home.
Piles of trash and unknown waste
surround the tents and broken
vehicles sprawled across the frontage Rd.
This troubled space serves as a vivid
example of the nearly 100 homeless
encampments spread across the city.
These growing tent communities are
now part of the fabric of Portland.
They surround us and many
neighbors have run out of patience.
It's not just where the camps are.
You know that that's being affected.
I know that we happen
to live right behind it,
but it's you know our friends and
neighbors that live several blocks away.
You know all the way over to
Tord Foster all the way over
Tord division.
They're affected to to better
understand the impact of an encampment.
We zeroed in on SE Powell and 57th,
where over the past two years,
residents have filed more than 1000
complaints about illegal camping
on the city's website. You got
prostitution drug selling.
Someone might get drunk.
Yeah, it's a. It's pretty sad.
Paul Woods, who lives a block and
a half away from the encampment,
said it's not unusual for trouble
to spill into the neighborhood,
including petty crime
like vandalism and theft.
I got motion lights all around the place,
put heavy screens on the doors, really
deflating a few
families have decided to sell their homes
to get away from the encampment. It's it's
really hard. We love our neighbors
and the neighborhood, and it's been.
It's been tough. It was bittersweet,
for sure. Yeah, absolutely.
After 16 years in the
Foster Powell neighborhood,
Keeley Montgomery and her family
are packing up and moving to
Tygard She's sympathetic to
those living in the encampment.
But after repeatedly finding
hypodermic needles on the sidewalk,
having bike stolen and all the stress,
Montgomery has had enough.
Our hope is that
you know, these people get help too.
And it's not just, you know.
It's not just about us,
it's about them too.
City and regional crews have
cleaned up or completely removed
encampment almost two dozen times
over the past two years with a price
tag totaling just over $18,000.
Despite those repeated efforts,
piles of trash, old food,
and hazardous waste have again become
part of the landscape last summer,
before was the worst neighbors worry
about the environmental impact?
How much garbage
there was? Where did these people
take care of their business?
In my neighbors, Bush is. And now
where does all this trash
and Binner sewer drains? And there are
concerns about fire over the past two years,
emergency crews have responded to more
than 10 reports of fire at the encampment.
Additionally, there have been
nearly a dozen complaints about
abandoned cars or debris in the
roadway blocking the right of way.
Crime, it's had issues and some
nearby businesses say their
customers just don't feel safe. I
can't see that we're losing
business. But people are
more afraid to come to the office
because they're more afraid.
They see those chaos.
And they're like.
Why is this such a mess?
Oh my goodness, across the street on
SE Powell, the classic Denture center
is open for business, but the front
door is locked right now.
Door always locked and I
wouldn't open the door.
I will go first look, yeah?
SE Powell and 57th, which is
controlled by the Oregon Department
of Transportation hasn't
always looked this bad.
Images from Google Maps in
June 2019 show empty spaces.
Two years later, it's become a
well established encampment with a
portable toilet set up by the city.
When we visited eight unhoused people
were staying at the encampment,
including Asia Mart.
In the 41 year old work for
Tri met before falling on hard
times and it could happen
to anyone you know. Never take
life for granted. Martin,
who's been homeless for almost two years,
has spent the past two months sleeping
in a tent at SE Powell and 57th.
Why here of all places? What does it
brings you to this specific location?
Uhm? Is more open.
I wouldn't want to be somewhere
secluded and if something
happened then nobody would know.
I mean, also it's pretty small filming a
few people here that I know pretty well,
so it's one of the cleanest.
Campsites that Eddie Lafferty and
his girlfriend parked their van
here almost six months ago. Kind
of like. Home.
He used to have
a best friend. That's it. It lives
in that house right there. When
I was younger, the campsite attracts
frequent visitors like Ray Seamster,
who's car is overloaded with stuff.
So I could rely instead of shuffling
people around from encampment to
encampment the 36 year old says
the real solution is housing. I'm
actually happy several
times people get kicked out,
get green, tiger or not.
And here's their back back here,
same same thing over again so.
The City of Portland plans to start
clearing more camps and to build six
managed villages for people experiencing
homelessness by the end of this year.
In theory, the plan will move
people into a safer space away from
neighborhoods and off the street like
SE Powell and 57th Tool for this
anymore because as it stands now,
many homeless are simply being
pushed from one spot to the next.
There's no real solution.
Campsites dot the map.
And with every new or growing encampment,
the social and economic impact is multiplied.
The homeless crisis touches
every corner of our community.
OK, let's talk to Kyle Busch
about this for just a second.
Now we know that there are encampments
just like this all over town.
But are they just like this?
How similar are they in the reports
that are made and the type of
impact they have on the community?
Well, we certainly heard similar
complaints across the entire city.
More than 100,000 complaints from
citizens about illegal campsites
across the city of Portland,
and those complaints have the
same type of issues, trash noise,
petty crime, that type of thing.
What we really want to try
and illustrate here is.
This is just one example.
The same type of problems are
occurring at every encampment.
Across the city and shuffling people
around from one campsite to the next,
it's just not a solution.
How do neighbors react?
I think most of the time we
see the reaction between the
neighbors and then the activists,
but I imagine that the neighbor reaction
gets a little bit more nuanced for the
people and how they respond to these.
These encampments, right?
Most everybody.
Certainly, they're sympathetic to
those living in these encampments.
But neighbors are somewhat divided.
There are some who are fed up and say,
listen, enough is enough.
They've got to be moved out of here.
The other side of the camp,
they say, listen, not so much.
We need to help these.
These are our neighbors and
they're providing food,
water.
Even dropping off furniture and
that creates some conflict as well
because some neighbors say listen,
that's just not right.
You're actually helping to fuel this,
creating an even larger problem
or a larger encampment.
We need consistency in how we
deal with these encampments,
calibishie,
thank you.