The Struggle to Find Consistency Among Unhoused Communities

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During this time of extreme homelessness in the Portland area there is one silver lining for many people who experience new or chronic homelessness. This is the ability to make a constant community that usually would be taken away by the act of sweeping. Sweeping is what the Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program, or HUCIRP, does when homeless camps are established, but in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a recent halt due to concerns of spreading the virus. This has led many people who have previously been experiencing a constant nomadic life style be able to experience some form of stability for the first time in a long time. 

Although, the sweeps are now starting once more with the office of Mayor Ted Wheeler ordering them again during a time of extreme weather conditions and a spike in the virus, citing that the encampments, or street camps, are a health risk and obstruct access to shared community spaces. For many people facing chronic homelessness this is a decision that may cost them their lives. When sweeping occurs many people experiencing homelessness not only lose the place they started to call home, but also the community they began to call family. The displacement leaves many people in a vulnerable position as they must again fend for themselves on the streets. 

Not only does this displace communities many people experiencing homelessness also report the ravaging of their personal belongings. When people experiencing homelessness are able to find a community they begin to find safety in numbers, thus they are able to gain access to more items that gain them stability or a form of comfort. When sweeping occurs it is usually done aggressively and fast, thus the people living in said homeless encampments lose their valuable belongings. 

The decision to sweep these encampments during such a tumultuous time causes many people to be without the essential to survive the weather let alone the deadly virus. 

Thus the question stands, how do we create spaces to provide homeless people stability without disrupting public spaces?


For more information check out the article:

"After painful sweep of Laurelhurst Park, unhoused residents want a space to exist"

or visit 

streetroots.org (a news/social justice organization based in Oregon that helps with the houseless crisis)


 

Published by Octavia Wade 

Portland State University for  Multimedia Capstone

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