Alex Banuelos remembers how the rules changed Nov. 1.
Banuelos, 42, said he’s been homeless for a year and a half and was living in an encampment in Portland’s Old Town neighborhood when police approached to begin enforcing the city’s ban on setting up tents or structures on public property.
He watched as officers homed in on one man for arrest on an outstanding warrant that was unrelated to the ban. Banuelos walked away without a citation for violating the ban and didn’t accept a bed in a congregate shelter. He headed to East Portland with his girlfriend.
“We’re playing it by ear right now,” said Banuelos, who missed the lunch service at Blanchet House, which is just around the corner from his old encampment.
Banuelos’ story isn’t unique. Data shows Portland police have issued 61 citations for violating the camping ban — roughly 6% of the more than 1,000 “contacts” they recorded as part of enforcement efforts. The rest are people who declined offers of shelter and people living outside being moved along — with no signs anyone is tracking whether they’re moving into stable housing. Police arrested 203 people for unrelated offenses.
Months of data paint an unclear picture about the ban’s success. Enforcing it is central to Mayor Keith Wilson’s plan to end unsheltered homelessness. His main method was the 1,500 emergency shelter beds his administration quickly set up. Wilson and other officials have previously pointed to figures showing more people sleeping in the shelter beds. The city’s websites on usage trends haven’t been updated since February.
But fewer than half of the homeless people police contacted during the first five months of the ban’s enforcement have accepted offers of shelter. According to police data, 728 people living outside were offered shelter during enforcement of the ban, which was accepted by 324. It’s not clear from the data what became of those who refused shelter.
Police have also concentrated enforcement in fewer than 10 neighborhoods either near downtown or more recently in East Portland, raising concerns that homeless people are just being shuffled around instead of getting closer to stable housing.
“You can’t sweep your way out of homelessness,” said Portland City Councilor Candace Avalos, who represents the city’s eastern edge and chairs the Housing and Permitting Committee. “I think that what has always happened is that people would get swept out of the streets of downtown Portland and swept out into East Portland and forgotten, just like the rest of East Portland.”
Cody Bowman, spokesperson for Wilson, said in an email that the city seeks to reduce displacement by offering people “meaningful alternatives” to living outside. He said “enforcement is guided by a focused, data‑driven approach” that involves input from multiple city bureaus, including police. That approach prioritizes encampments for removal based on conspicuous drug use, whether it’s blocking public access or violating Americans with Disabilities Act standards, proximity to schools and residences, as well as other factors.
“Camp sites that pose clear risks to public health or safety are top priority,” he continued. “City outreach teams make repeated, proactive engagement attempts (both during campsite assessments and independently) to offer shelter, services, and case management.”
Now, the city could be facing another shift in its approach to homelessness. A sizable budget shortfall could mean the closure of more than 900 shelter beds.
Banuelos, who wore mutton chops and a Rolling Stones hat, said he’d like to get a boat and catch Northern pikeminnows so he can collect federal payments for removing the invasive species from the Columbia River, which he called “life-changing” money. But he has more pressing concerns. He said his girlfriend was mauled by a pit bull who lunged into their unzipped tent. There’s also the looming possibility of again being displaced.
Giving police ‘a lawful basis’ for arrests
JR Ujifusa, a senior Multnomah County deputy district attorney, said he’s been at sites where police and rapid response workers removed encampments. He said the vast majority of times they’re offering services and trying to get homeless people into more stable housing.
“Those citations are literally — quite literally — the last resort for these interactions,” said Ujifusa, who manages citations under the ban.
Citations are reserved for those who refuse to talk, get out of their tent or engage with an officer, he said. He called the 61 citations a “drop in the bucket” compared to the more than 1,000 people police have contacted as part of enforcement.
Wilson and other officials said they would avoid criminalizing homeless people while enforcing the ban, and would use it to steer people toward services.
According to Ujifusa, when people show up to court for a camping citation, it could be an opportunity to connect them with an attorney or case worker who can help them resolve mental health issues or get them on a housing waitlist.
Court data obtained by Street Roots shows police issued 61 citations for camping on public property (some people have multiple citations). Those cited faced a criminal justice system with a dire shortage of public defenders and understaffed prosecution.
Seven people with citations eventually saw their cases dismissed as the result of an Oregon Supreme Court ruling that limited how long defendants could wait without being appointed a public defense lawyer. Another seven were dismissed. Court records show that in some cases defendants agreed to accept services. No one has been convicted under the ban.
Out of all the people cited, 36 saw a failure to appear warrant issued for their arrest after they didn’t show up to court.
Grant Hartley, Multnomah County director of Metropolitan Public Defender, said homeless people end up missing court dates because of their chaotic lives. Services are hard to come by and courts often can’t connect people to what they need, he said.
“The sad part is, the goal of going to these camps was supposed to be to try to help connect these people with housing services,” he said. “That doesn’t seem to be happening.”
Bowman, the mayor’s spokesperson, said in an email that the low shelter acceptance rate “underscores why citations are an important tool” to “encourage” people to move into shelters, which he described as more stable and safe. Police officers and outreach teams have real-time access to shelter availability, and enforcement does not proceed if beds are unavailable, he said.
“The goal is not punishment; it’s to create a clear pathway toward shelter and services when those options exist,” he said.
The data shows 203 people were arrested on warrants unrelated to the ban during enforcement, about half of which were for a failure to appear.
Hartley said the ban is giving police a lawful basis they wouldn’t otherwise have to enter encampments and arrest people who might have trouble meeting court dates because of substance use problems or other challenges. Police enforcement data leaves him with more questions, he said.
Street Roots obtained data on warrants people were arrested under while police were enforcing the ban. However, the data did not include court case numbers that could be used to evaluate how serious the crimes are.
Officers are legally obligated to act if they find individuals with active warrants or witness other criminal activity during enforcement, Bowman said.
Ujifusa said that these warrants include serious and violent felonies. The prosecutor said he believes arresting someone gives them the chance to resolve the charges, even if they are for trespassing or for other lower-level crimes, that could be keeping them from jobs and housing.
But he said he’s not aware of any tracking of outcomes from the citations.
‘They took everything’
While citations for violating the ban are relatively uncommon, police issued 651 warnings between November and March (the most-recent month data is available for). Warnings are a step below citations and don’t mean fines or other consequences. Police have also participated in 481 coordinated campsite removals managed by the Impact Reduction Program.
Additional data obtained through a public records request shows the city has increased its coordinated campsite removals since the ban went back into effect in November. Citywide, more than 500 tents were removed as part of the city’s coordinated enforcement of the ban with police and the Impact Reduction Program. More than 350 cars and RVs were also removed.
The inner southeast Portland neighborhood of Buckman saw the most removals with 56 during this five-month period.
Jeff Liddicoat, a spry and talkative 67-year-old, said he’s spent many of his more than 30 years living outside in the “Republic of Buckman.” He said one neighbor charges his phone and batteries for him. Another gave him the access code so he could use the bathroom in an apartment building. Plus, there’s all the shop owners he’s friendly with.
Between sips of an iced blended coffee and with an unlit cigarette in hand, Liddicoat said the ban has been a “major topic” of conversation among the neighborhood’s homeless residents. Days earlier, police accompanied the city’s Rapid Response Team as it hauled away a structure he had built out of a tarp and other materials.
“They took everything,” he said. “All my clothes, blankets, sleeping bags, carts, medications, back scratcher, Madonna statue, my very expensive velcro boots.”
The city is required to store and return items to people after they are seized during a removal. But Liddicoat, and others, said some of their belongings still end up getting tossed.
Involuntary displacement is a common experience among homeless people in Multnomah County, according to a recent survey by the Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative at Portland State University.
Of the more than 500 currently or formerly homeless people surveyed, 160 reported being involuntarily displaced. Nearly half of those reported losing an ID, medications or medical supplies or losing a connection with someone who was providing support. More than half lost a phone. A quarter reported missing a housing appointment as a result of being displaced.
“We are investing in two services that are competing with each other,” said Kathleen Conte, a lead investigator of the study. “We are trying to get people into housing and then displacing them and making it harder for them to get into housing.”
Conte noted that many homeless people also feel unsafe in the shelters. Last fall, advocacy groups Sisters of the Road and the Welcome Home Coalition released a report that found that people experiencing homelessness saw living in shelters “as undesirable as outdoor spaces.” Conte said people who participated in her survey reported that housing affordability is the biggest cause of their homelessness — and the biggest barrier to exiting it.
Liddicoat said he’s seen previous iterations of bans on sleeping outside, and he’s already begun building another structure nearby.
“They put on the show every once in a while to make citizens think that something’s going to happen,” he said. “And it’s smoke and mirrors.”
A focus on Lents
Under an overpass in Lents, a woman with black hair tied back poked her head out of a tent. She asked a reporter if she could speak about her experience anonymously.
The tent was surrounded by IKEA bags stuffed with clothes, a leopard print blanket, a pair of men’s shoes, a water jug and various cleaning products. She said she and the others she shares the area with try to keep their encampment tidy. But they only just recently set up there after getting a removal notice at their previous spot, which was also in the area. They just got another notice and will have to move again.
“Every day is worrying,” she said.
Police enforcement data shows that multiple East Portland neighborhoods — Lents, Powellhurst-Gilbert, Montavilla and Centennial — have seen increases in coordinated campsite removals.
In Lents, removals rose from two in November to 15 in March. Powellhurst-Gilbert saw an increase from one to 10 in the same period. Meanwhile, Hazelwood, another East Portland neighborhood, saw removals hover around 10 each month.
Tracking the movement of homeless people is difficult. It’s not clear if the data indicates homeless people are being pushed east or if enforcement in these areas has increased.
Bowman, the mayor’s spokesperson, said in an email that the neighborhoods identified in Street Roots analysis have “consistently experienced high concentrations of campsites with conditions such as fire hazards, blocked sidewalks, biohazards, or other safety concerns.”
“These factors, along with Police Neighborhood Response Team capacity, drive the level of enforcement activity—not the neighborhood itself,” he said.
Lents has seen 42 campsite removals, the second-highest of any neighborhood.
In addition to removals, police also issued the most warnings to unsheltered people that they were in violation of the ban in Lents and Hazelwood at 102 and 70, respectively, according to data analyzed by Street Roots.
The woman in the encampment said she wants to get into housing, but is worried about the budget cuts facing the city. She said people have thrown rocks and shot BBs at her encampment. As she spoke, someone yelled angrily from a van speeding by.
“What are we doing that’s so wrong?” she asked.
This article appears in May 27, 2026.