Bike. Two generators. Chair. Table. Bike, wheelchair. Walker. Crutches, cooler, baby stroller.
These are a few of the items taken during recent sweeps of homeless encampments in Portland, according to the city’s latest data.
In the first six months of Mayor Keith Wilson’s tenure, homeless sweeps by month outpaced those conducted in former Mayor Ted Wheeler’s final year in office. Wilson maintains that his plan will provide care and compassion for those in need. But the actions his administration is taking — increasing sweeps and emergency shelters while deprioritizing permanent housing affordable to those with the fewest resources — are the same actions that a Street Roots/ProPublica investigation showed were linked to a four-fold increase in deaths among people living on the city’s streets.
In an interview published in Street Roots Feb. 5, Wilson acknowledged the damage sweeps cause, but said he would remove RVs and tents to end unsheltered homelessness by Dec. 1. In his words, the city would remove the tent, but not the care.
“Goodness gracious, sweeps are the most inhumane thing there ever is,” Wilson said. “But letting people suffer and die on the street is so much worse than what we’re doing.”
While Wilson’s rhetoric is less abrasive than recent statements by President Donald Trump, who is threatening to force people living outside into institutions or jail, some of the actions each leader has called for run parallel.
NEWS: Portland said it was investing in homeless people’s safety. Deaths have skyrocketed.
Trump issued an executive order July 24 calling for civil commitments of homeless people, criminalizing harm reduction efforts, an end to “housing first” policies and federal law enforcement assistance to help local governments sweep encampments. That goes farther than Wilson’s plan, but both rely on a framework that removes homeless people from their communities and into state-sanctioned areas without first addressing the need for permanent housing affordable to those with few resources.
Under city and state laws, homeless Portlanders can face penalties if they do not accept shelter when offered. While Wilson’s emergency shelters are still ramping up to meet the need, violation of the city’s current ordinance addressing “conduct prohibited on public property” is punishable by a $100 fine or up to seven days in jail.
In other words, homeless residents are at risk of civil and criminal penalties if they stay outside, or they must move in and out of an overnight shelter every 12 hours. Since the beginning of the year, Wilson has added 430 new shelter beds, totaling 1,300 city-run beds, according to Wilson’s spokesperson, Cody Bowman. Including Multnomah County-funded shelters, 2,454 beds are available to local homeless residents on a given night, though the occupancy rate hovers around nearly 94%.
That’s far short of the need. Multnomah County’s Homeless Services Department estimates there are over 7,000 unsheltered homeless residents in the county as of May.
Wilson presented updates on his plan to the Housing and Homelessness Committee Aug. 12, touting the shelters as playing a central role in achieving the city’s housing first policies, and attempting to assuage fears the shelters could serve to justify more sweeps.
“Expanding shelters will not increase the number of encampment sweeps,” Wilson said.
Despite rhetoric, sweeps continue to rise
The latest Impact Reduction Program, or IRP, data shows Wilson has kept pace with — and is consistently more aggressive than — his predecessor in sweeping homeless Portlanders.
Over a 12-month period, the number of homeless encampment sweeps peaked at 805 in May under Wilson’s purview, an increase from Wheeler’s 2024 peak of 746 in August 2024. Wilson’s second-highest month since taking office also ranked above Wheeler’s highest month, at 754 sweeps in April. Even Wilson’s third-highest month — 738 encampments swept in March — nearly matched Wheeler’s highest. Wheeler’s second- and third-highest total sweeps in a month were 721 in December 2024 and 720 in October 2024. In each of the first six months of 2025, Wilson increased the number of monthly sweeps compared with each respective month under Wheeler in 2024.
Laura Rude, IRP communications and data coordinator, said there is a difference between how the city tracks an encampment “removal” versus a “clean” site. The net numbers include all categories.
“Generally speaking, ‘removals’ are active camps with people living in them, usually with personal property on site that is collected and stored,” Rude said. “‘Clean’ sites are typically abandoned camps that are just garbage removal with no property. They could also be camps where there have been fires and we are cleaning up the aftermath.”
Sweeps are often more frequent in the summer months, according to the data. Still, IRP data analyzed by Street Roots shows Wheeler removed or cleaned 3,332 encampments in the first six months of 2024.
And in his last six months in office, Wheeler swept 4,183 encampments in all. On average, the city dismantled just over 20 encampments per day in 2024.
Wilson’s first six months of 2025: 4,815. That’s 26.6 sweeps per day.
Outreach workers on the ground with homeless Portlanders say the city’s current approach to sweeps inhibits their work, separating them from those they could connect with services, including permanent housing. When the city sweeps encampments, the people outreach workers have built relationships with are dispersed to new areas, making it difficult to reconnect with people and continue supporting them.
Sally Mueller, an outreach worker with Janus Youth Programs, said a big part of her job is building trusting relationships with youth, which can take weeks or months.
Janus has worked with homeless youth to provide housing and substance use support for over 50 years.
Mueller said when camps are removed, workers often lose touch with youth eligible for services.
“Many people do not have phones so if they are forced to move, we can’t find them,” Mueller said. “That can be the end of our connection.”
Mueller added that staff from Rapid Response Bio Clean — the company that sweeps encampments on behalf of the city — can share resources during sweeps.
But that only goes so far.
“I think it is important, for some folks, to trust the person who is providing the information in order to trust the resource referral,” Mueller said.
Under Wilson, the number of removals — where people are living — are far higher than cleanings, where people are not living at the time. The city cleaned just 86 sites in the first six months of 2025, with 26 categorized as “abatement” and the remaining 4,703 categorized as a removal, according to the latest IRP data.
Abatements are done at the request of law enforcement, under state law, Rude said. That also means officials are not required to give 72-hour notice — as is typical under state law — when they believe illegal activity is occurring at the site, or in instances of immediate danger.
Bowman said campsite postings follow a consistent, transparent, state-law-compliant protocol and are coordinated collaboratively with local outreach teams. While the IRP communicates with city outreach teams and a network of local providers — including emails and weekly coordination calls — losing track of individuals is not uncommon for outreach workers.
Mueller said homeless Portlanders she works with say sweeps sometimes happen earlier or later than the posted notice.
“When we know ahead of time that someone we are working with will be getting swept, we can prepare by asking where they might move to next, so that we have an idea of where to look,” she said. “This sometimes works out, but often we still cannot find them and we lose touch. For the individual victims of sweeps it can be very stressful and exhausting to move repeatedly. Some individuals have expressed just ping-ponging between two or three familiar spots.”
Federal actions mirror city plan
The latest city data comes as President Donald Trump cracks down on homeless encampments at the federal level. Trump issued an executive order July 24, outlining a “new approach focused on protecting public safety,” and blaming homeless residents for “crime and disorder on America’s streets.”
It’s a claim that lacks evidence.
The executive order cited the 2024 Point in Time, or PIT Count, which recorded 274,224 people nationwide as unsheltered homeless. The annual PIT Count is widely understood to be a substantial undercount but provides a baseline for homelessness statistics year-to-year.
The order seeks to reverse federal and state precedents that protect people with mental illness from civil commitment — meaning it would be easier for local judges to require a person deemed mentally ill to be institutionalized.
Jake Cornett, Disability Rights Oregon executive director, said better solutions exist to resolve homelessness.
“Criminalizing homelessness doesn’t help people who are struggling or make our streets safer,” Cornett said. “Portland has a real opportunity to end family homelessness, but that would require a different strategy than simply sweeping the streets. It would take real investment in rapid rehousing, low-barrier shelters, and community-based behavioral health supports.”
Disability Rights Oregon is designated by federal law to protect the rights of people with disabilities in Oregon, including those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, mental illnesses and other disabilities.
Trump’s order calls for cities and states to end “harm reduction” efforts and “housing first” policies. It says federal agencies should prioritize grants for local governments that enforce prohibitions on “open illicit drug use,” “urban camping” and “squatting.”
The order also says the U.S. Attorney General shall: “take all necessary steps to ensure the availability of funds under the emergency Federal Law Enforcement Assistance program to support … encampment removal efforts in areas for which public safety is at risk and State and local resources are inadequate.”
Asked if the city plans to apply for federal grants to assist with encampment removals, Bowman said the city supports a comprehensive homelessness strategy that includes harm reduction, street outreach, prevention services, rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing.
“Our approach addresses immediate needs and builds lasting pathways to self-sufficiency,” Bowman said. “We consider grants on a case-by-case basis and primarily seek opportunities that strengthen our full continuum of care and adhere to our city’s values.”
Some local leaders, including City Councilor Angelita Morillo, fear enforcement may continue to ramp up as Wilson’s Dec. 1 goal to end unsheltered homelessness nears.
“I want (the shelter plan) to be successful, and I want it to be good,” Morillo told Wilson in the Aug. 12 committee meeting. “And I also genuinely have concerns that this is going to become a process of expanding as much shelter as possible, so that we can sweep as many of our homeless neighbors as possible and get them off the streets and make the streets look pretty.”
Bowman said Wilson’s priority is to offer safe, adequate support with overnight beds and day center options to reduce reliance on enforcement.
“Removals and cleanups will continue when sites pose health or safety risks in tandem with outreach options to shelters across the region,” Bowman said. “Outreach teams will continue to connect those living on our streets with shelter opportunities that fit their needs.”
Portland’s increase in sweeps despite insufficient alternatives follows a pattern. Since 2020, the city has invested significant resources in moving homeless residents off public rights of way and into temporary shelters, while simultaneously disinvesting in permanent housing.
The city sweeps homeless residents at a higher rate than its West Coast peers, and homeless residents in Multnomah County die at a higher rate than any other West Coast county with available homeless mortality data, as reported by Street Roots and ProPublica June 11.
Bowman said Mayor Wilson’s plan “rejects the false choice between shelter and housing” by treating unsheltered homelessness as an emergency.
“It couples rapid shelter expansion with sustained investment in permanent supportive housing, recognizing that both are essential to saving lives and restoring stability,” Bowman said. “Guided by real-time data and led through a centralized command system, it focuses on a comprehensive, outcome-focused strategy.”
Since 2017, the city built 2,238 permanent supportive housing units, which are currently in operation, and has 361 units in the pipeline to be built. That’s nearly 600 units above its goal of building 2,000 units by 2028. The Metro Supportive Housing Services also contributes to the city’s permanent supportive housing stock, through funds allocated by Multnomah County.
Drop in violent crime, despite rhetoric
Trump doubled down on his executive order Aug. 11, declaring a “crime emergency” in Washington D.C. and directly correlating the emergency with homeless residents. Trump invoked the Home Rule Act to seize control of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department.
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people, and we’re not going to let it happen anymore,” Trump claimed without evidence in a press conference announcing the takeover.
However, the U.S. Department of Justice reported violent crime plummeted in D.C. in 2024 — down 35% from 2023 — and marking a 30-year low.
And despite longstanding narratives correlating crime and homelessness in Portland, the city announced Aug. 8 that overall violent crime dropped 17% in the first six months of 2025, compared with 2024. A report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association showed Portland had the steepest drop in violent crime of the 68 participating cities. Both D.C. and Portland showed a drop in all violent crime categories — including homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
And data the Portland Police Bureau released July 16 showed a notable decrease in crime within 1,000 feet of the city’s emergency overnight shelters compared to the six months prior to the sites’ opening — and compared to citywide crime statistics, which is also down 8.7%, according to the report.
Still, outreach workers have noticed more barriers around town, preventing tents and RVs from parking in certain areas. As Wilson works to site more emergency overnight shelters across the city, he’s faced pushback from some neighbors who fear the shelters will create an uptick in crime.
In his Aug. 12 presentation, Wilson reiterated the city’s efforts to enforce the law, removing tents and RVs from streets, instead offering overnight emergency shelter to those who live there under threat of civil and criminal penalties, with compassion.
“We are now just simply applying the rules as they’re written,” Wilson said.
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This article appears in August 20, 2025.