More Than Laurelhurst: Sweeps After Covid
On Thursday, July 29, the city of Portland executed a controversial plan to remove a 50-tent homeless camp from Laurelhurst Park. The sweep began at 8 am with the arrival of four marked police cars and about 50 Rapid Response Bioclean employees. The eviction of people from the iconic park, where they had slept for months, marked the beginning of an uptick in regular sweeps of camps. And these sweeps are not just taking place in affluent close-in southeast neighborhoods but across the city. In the same week, the Laurelhurst sweep took place, 11 other sweeps were conducted with little or no media attention. A spokesperson from the Portland Office of Management and Finance, who oversees the sweeps, says that the uptick in sweeps will be the new normal. The bureau plans to conduct 10 –15 camp removals for the foreseeable future, up from 4 – 6 sweeps at the beginning of the year. Before the beginning of the pandemic, OMF conducted an average of 40 sweeps per week. City Commissioners say t...