The Portland Department of Permitting and Development is forcing a land trust to remove two longtime homeless residents from lots they live on with the land trust’s permission.
The planned evictions come as the city has dramatically ramped up the pace of sweeps, which city data shows have increased by 664% in four years.
One resident has lived at the tidy and well-built site dubbed “Sammy’s Tarp Palace” for nearly a decade. The other has lived there for about 15 years. The Department of Permitting and Development declined to answer questions about why the city is planning to remove their homes, saying a public records request was necessary.
Jeff Strang is treasurer for the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust, which owns the two lots off the bike path along North Greeley Avenue, near where it connects to North Interstate Avenue. Strang provided Street Roots the July 1 letter the city sent to the land trust.
The letter said Anastasia Howard, a senior housing inspector with the department, visited the site in June and found violations of Portland’s property management code.
“The inspection followed a referral from the City’s Impact Reduction Team, which identified unauthorized camping on the privately owned site,” wrote Chenoa Philabaum, a spokesperson for the city.
The team receives reports of homelessness from the public that then lead to removals.
The letter says homesteads on the two lots must be removed within 30 days and all trash must be removed within 60 days.
The letter adds failure to comply will result in a fee charged as a lien against the property. The letter does not specify the fee, though it notes it will double if unaddressed after three months. It also mentions a $1,025 fine for each violation and each site every month if the property is classified as vacant but is occupied. City spokespeople did not immediately share the total amount the land trust would be fined each month.
Hazelnut Grove, which is next door, is not mentioned in the letter.
Street Roots visited the site on July 8 and 9. On July 8, before Street Roots had the letter, residents Sammy and Dean declined to be interviewed but explained they just had to clean up trash by Dean’s tiny house and could stay.
Street Roots returned the next day, after obtaining the letter from Strang, and found Dean had made significant progress cleaning the site, including trash from a third site someone erected near Dean’s home a couple months ago.
Dean lives in a well-built tiny house with his three cats. When Street Roots shared the letter saying he had to leave his home of about 15 years within a few weeks, his face shattered.
“Where am I going to go now?” he said.
Strang said he gave Dean and Sammy copies of the letter from the city when he got it.
Strang said Sammy has lived there the better part of a decade without any problems. Sammy was not home on July 9. His manicured home on the lot next to Dean is known as “Sammy’s Tarp Palace.” Tucked behind neat garden beds, fruit trees and well-maintained brush, the site is not visible from the bike path.
“He’s got a beautiful place there,” said Strang. “I think he’s used to living in a pretty rural area, and what he’s done there I think is beautiful.”
A neighbor who owns the single home overlooking the site echoed Strang, adding he knows Sammy and Dean, likes them and doesn’t want to see them removed.
Street Roots caught up with Sammy on July 8 as he was tending his plum trees. The former carpenter and tradesman from the small Caribbean island of Nevis declined to talk on the record but described the years of work he’d put into maintaining the oasis, which is connected by paths decorated with glass art and American flags.
Strang said the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Land Trust is in the process of trying to transfer the land to the city bureau of transportation to expand the Hazelnut Grove camp.
“That would consolidate their land along that part of Greeley, and if they want to house more people like at Hazelnut Grove, they could just expand Hazelnut Grove,” he said.
A spokesperson for the bureau said, “It’s too soon for us to comment on whether we would consider this. We (have) only just been notified of this issue.”
Residents of Hazelnut Grove told Street Roots they wanted Strang to transfer the land to the self-governing camp instead. They also said the city had no right to remove their longtime neighbors, especially because the letter cites “unauthorized tent camping” but Dean lives in a tiny home and Sammy lives in a grouping of permanent structures connected by carpeted pathways with open air gardens.
Jackie, who has lived at Hazelnut Grove since it started more than a decade ago, said she likes Sammy and Dean, and wants them to stay. She added that remaining in place was a tactic that worked for Hazelnut Grove.
“We stood our ground,” she said. “Before we came here, we camped downtown, across from City Hall in that park, three-and-a-half years.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story misspelled Jeff Strang’s name.
This article appears in July 15, 2026.
