KGW8 interviews Rose Haven’s Development Director, Liz Starke, about Portland’s new daytime camping ban.
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Watch KGW’s Straight Talk with Laural Porter interview Liz Starke, our Development Director, about the effect of the camping ban on Rose Haven.
Originally published on Streetroots.org
Written by Jeremiah Hayden, Sr Intern
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Vague communication from city causes concern among homeless Portlanders and service providers
Portland’s ‘daytime camping ban’ went into effect July 7, but the city has not communicated a rollout timeline, a map of allowed sleeping spots or when exactly Portland police will begin enforcing the ordinance, which includes fines and jail time. The ordinance amended city code to place new restrictions on when, where and how homeless Portlanders can shelter, including a ban on acts construed as “establishing or maintaining a temporary place to live” between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and prohibiting “establishing or maintaining a temporary place to live” at any time on sidewalks, in parks and other public property. The revised code allows for two warnings before police can arrest a homeless Portlander, who will then be subject to a $100 fine, 30 days in jail, or both.
The city has not communicated timelines because, according to the city, it has yet to finalize — and in some cases begin — concrete plans and procedures for outreach to homeless Portlanders, enforcement training for PPB officers, or collaboration with service providers and county partners.
Local service providers say the lack of communication poses additional challenges and has heightened the level of concern for the people they serve.
“The general sense from our community of guests here is that there is anxiety around the unknowns,” Katie O’Brien, Rose Haven executive director, said.
According to O’Brien, the day shelter serves more than 3,000 people each year, providing food, clothing, showers and community for women, children and people of marginalized genders. Organizations like Rose Haven are also the first point of contact for people who need vital information about shelter during extreme weather events, healthcare access or how to navigate city policy.
“We’re where people come for information because they trust us,” O’Brien said. Thus far, the city’s communication about the ordinance is scattershot. The ambiguity creates new anxieties for homeless Portlanders and squanders an opportunity for service providers to disseminate reliable Information.
As it stands, the ordinance’s 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. time restrictions create new concerns about when and where people will be able to sleep. Many queer, trans and female identifying people sleep during the day because they feel unsafe sleeping in public at night, and some work at night so they can sleep in relative safety during the day.
“That is definitely on the minds of folks that have that sort of lifestyle for safety reasons,” O’Brien said. “We do have some people who will come here and lay on a couch for a few hours and try and get some rest here because they feel safe here.”
The new restrictions create additional difficulties for people with disabilities who, when enforcement begins, are required to break down, pack up and haul all sleeping materials each day. If they are unable to pack up, people could face fines, jail time and the immediate seizure of their Property.
In O’Brien’s case, she said she had to proactively contact the mayor’s office to be able to offer input on the ordinance.
O’Brien said she immediately initiated a conversation with the city when she first heard about the proposal from other service providers, and met with Wheeler’s senior policy advisor Skyler Brocker-Knapp the day before Wheeler introduced his proposal in a May 31 City Council meeting. O’Brien met with city officials twice, but remains frustrated by a lack of clarity around where people can sleep, keep their belongings when they want to access services and how Rose Haven should direct people who depend on them for vital Information.
The requirement to carry belongings throughout the day also poses new challenges for service providers like Rose Haven. According to O’Brien, the shelter currently serves around 150 people per day, and she expects that number to rise when the ban goes into effect. An increase in carried possessions means limited space is used as storage rather than a place to offer services. “If people have to pack up their lives and bring them in with them, it changes my capacity,” she said. “I can actually serve less people.”
In light of the new ordinance, Rose Haven already had to pivot toward addressing more basic needs in the moment rather than focusing on stabilizing solutions like connecting people to recovery, housing and employment. Trauma-informed care means providers focus on addressing basic needs before attempting to solve long-term issues.
“This disrupts all that because now we’re working on different things with people,” O’Brien said. “It works against our ability to help provide support in those ways because now we’re just helping people move stuff around.”
O’Brien remains optimistic about the ongoing conversations, despite slow Progress. “I hold hope that we will have some collaboration because we need it,” O’Brien said. “But what I also want to say is, we need it for what we’re doing right now.” Gardner said Do Good participants are concerned about the additional strain that will be placed on daytime resource providers who are working at their threshold.
Lisa Balick, KOIN 6 News Reporter interviews Liz Starke, Rose Haven’s Development Director, about Portland’s plan to move houseless folks off the streets and sidewalks during the daytime.
Our Executive Director, Katie O’Brien, along with ninety-nine girlfriends, were recently interviewed for KGW Straight Talk with Laural Porter.
The show is schedule to air:
Friday, June 30th at 7:00pm
Saturday, July 1st 10:30am
Saturday, July 1st at 6:30pm
Sunday, July 2nd at 8:30pm
Please note the schedule may shift depending on NBC programming.
Reporter Nicole Hayden of the Oregonian reports that Portland nonprofits supporting those experiencing homelessness are concerned about their ability to meet the expected increase in demand once the city’s new daytime camping ban goes into effect.
The ban, scheduled for early July, limits unhoused individuals to camping only between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. in designated areas, requiring them to dismantle their camps during the day. Violations of the rules may result in fines or jail time. Many unhoused individuals are still unaware of the ordinance, and there is a lack of alternative shelter options available.
“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.”
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 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.
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.
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. She 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.”
Read full article at OregonLive.com
KATU Staff Writer wrote about the daytime camping ban on public property across the city starting on July 1st. Mayor Ted Wheeler’s proposed plan would prohibit all camping between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. It would also ban camping in places like parks, sidewalks, and near schools and day cares at all times.
Those who serve people experiencing homelessness say this plan will come with challenges for them.
The big question is if daytime public camping is banned, where will everyone go? Executive Director of Rose Haven, O’Brien asked the mayor’s office that question on Tuesday when she met with one of the mayor’s policy advisers.
“I asked for them to define specific areas where people could go because there’s no clarity around that,” O’Brien told KATU News.
O’Brien also asked the mayor’s office for open communication and funding as daytime shelters could be taking a lot more people in.
“My initial thoughts were that it seemed really unrealistic if people are sleeping outside and expected in the morning to pack their things up and carry them around with them all day,” said Rose Haven Executive Director Katie O’Brien.
O’Brien says it’s frustrating that Rose Haven only learned about this plan last week, and they haven’t had time to prepare.
“And never had anybody come to us and asked us if this is feasible and how this would impact us or how they can help,” she said.
“I think there’s just been little regard for people who are bearing the weight, agencies like ours who are bearing the weight of decisions like this,” O’Brien said.
Author Alma McCarty writes about the Portland daytime camping ban.
Executive directors of day centers in Portland worry a proposed daytime camping ban, if passed, could strain their limited resources and place a heavy burden on the people they strive to serve: the homeless and those living in poverty.
Even ahead of the implementation the measure, introduced by Mayor Ted Wheeler at City Council on Wednesday, both Rose Haven and Blanchet House report record numbers.
“Every day is busy. A year ago, a little over a year ago, we moved from a facility that was 3,000 square feet to this beautiful 10,000 square-foot facility, and it’s full,” explained Katie O’Brien with Rose Haven. “We are full and we are seeing about 150 people here a day.”
“To carry your house and your life around with you, with the expectation that you’re also going to come to a place like Rose Haven and be productive, it’s just adding to the problem. It’s not helping to eliminate it,” O’Brien said.
“We do not get any government funding. We’ve existed for 26 years without it, without a nickel of government funding while providing a huge public benefit,” explained O’Brien. “We are at our threshold. And how is the city going to help us?”
The daytime ban is seen as a first step in another plan that Wheeler announced last year to develop six sanctioned mass camping sites and then phase in a total ban on camping everywhere else in the city. None of the site have opened yet, although Wheeler’s office released some details about the first planned site earlier this year.
OPB Journalist Alex Zielinski writes about Portland’s daytime bans on homeless camping.
The Portland City Council is set to adopt stricter rules on homeless camping on public property. The ban would prohibit camping on public land between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and impose limitations on camping locations and activities during the remaining 12 hours. The policy would also prohibit camping in parks, riverbanks, busy streets, and within 250 feet of schools, among other areas.
The policy is influenced by a 2021 state law that requires cities to establish “objectively reasonable” rules regarding sitting and lying outdoors on public property. This law is based on a federal ruling by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Martin v. Boise, which prohibits arresting people for sleeping on public property unless adequate shelter is available. Portland’s proposed policy aims to meet the “objectively reasonable” standards outlined in the state law but has faced criticism from the ACLU of Oregon for not adequately considering the impact on people experiencing homelessness.
The new policy would enforce written warnings and potential penalties for violating the camping rules, including fines and possible jail time.
Rose Haven’s Director, Katie O’Brien, feels frustrated that the city never contacted her to alert her to this new proposal, let alone ask for her perspective.
“The challenge is that there is no communication with people on the ground level who understand this issue in ways that [the city doesn’t],” O’Brien said. “They’ve never asked or supported us in any way.”
O’Brien said she’s particularly worried how this ban will impact homeless women, a population that is disproportionately vulnerable to abuse while living outside. She said it’s common for women experiencing homelessness to sleep during the day and stay up at night to protect themselves from potential nighttime attacks.
“We have people who come to [Rose Haven] in the morning and immediately fall asleep on a couch since they’ve been up all night,” O’Brien said. “The [daytime camping] ban will make it harder for women to feel safe living outside.”
The proposed policy is expected to be approved by the Portland City Council, with several commissioners expressing support for the change. The policy is set to go into effect on July 1, 2023, the same day the state law takes effect.
Local News Channel, Everyday Northwest interviews Development Director Liz Starke to discuss Rose Haven and the 2023 Reigning Roses Walk. Click this link to watch the video!