PORTLAND, Ore.– Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has expanded the city’s Emergency Declaration to include no camping zones near key routes to K-12 schools. The declaration is an extension of the one set into place on February 4, 2022.
With school starting soon, Mayor Wheeler says in part of a statement: ” School-age children should be able to walk, bike,and ride buses to get to and from schools without potentially dangerous hazards as a result of encampments, including trash, tents in the right-of-way, biohazards, hypodermic needles, and more. Most homeless do not pose a risk to others—but that is not always the case—and that is why I’m taking these actions today.”
Camping will be prohibited around school buildings and along priority routes to and from schools. The expanded Emergency Declaration prioritizes the work of the Impact Reduction Program to post and remove camps in these areas. It will also enable them to keep these sites free of camping with no right of return.