Where did Everybody Go?

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Why Sweeps are not the answer to Portland’s Homelessness Crisis



As a Portlander who no longer lives in the city, but will always consider it home it can be relieving to return and feel a difference. Feeling safe in areas that before were not walkable, seeing other people out and about able to enjoy the city, and noticing efforts made to ‘clean up’ our downtown. As beneficial as these changes can seem, the question inevitably rises of, ‘but where did all the people living here go?’. The benefits surround those in a place of privilege, as I am blessed to have always had a house with four walls, a family to support me, and a safe place to sleep. What may seem like progress for the city is crucially affecting many of our residents, and faces are too often turned the other way. 


In 2023, after years of political movement and uproar following 2020, the city of Portland made a statement and drastically increased encampment sweeps. The city, particularly downtown, took a major hit with recurring protests and stigma and fear developed. Across the country Portland was developing a reputation of being unsafe and out of control and the homelessness and association of drug use/lawlessness did not go unnoticed. One of the most evident efforts toward a solution has been tent sweeps, but is this really the best step Portland can make in bettering the city, with the best interest of ALL Portlanders in mind? A ‘Stop the Sweeps PDX’ movement breaks down the reality that, 

“Cities, like Portland, use camping bans to make homeless people disappear without doing anything to actually solve the housing crisis which made homelessness so visible in the first place,”

It is crucial that Portland begin taking action towards housing the homeless, the goal is not to make people disappear. Traumatically displacing people from their homes may 'clean up' one part of the city or another, but these people have to find somewhere else to go. True movement is going to take place when action is made to provide housing, provide an alternative.


To better understand why sweeps are not the answer or how to be apart of the solution, please check out the links below:


https://www.servicesnotsweepscoalition.org/why-were-against sweeps#:~:text=Sweeps%20kill.,be%20working%20to%20reduce%20them.


https://www.streetroots.org/news/2021/09/29/sweeps 


https://wraphome.org/2024/03/29/history-of-portlands-camping-ban-stop-the-sweeps-pdx/

https://rentwell.org/

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