Weekly Street Services report: August 15

Community members,

We are pleased to provide a summary of the past week’s activity for the Streets Services Coordination Center, a collaborative team dedicated to streamlining services offered to those living outside and to expedite homelessness related cleanup efforts throughout Portland in a compassionate manner.

Our team is comprised of the Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program, Fire & Rescue, police, transportation, parks and recreation, and Multnomah County. Together we’ve taken a collective approach to remove campsites that pose the highest risk to health and safety. We coordinate our work, share information and resources, and communicate with one another on a daily basis.

Shelter referrals

Thanks to the Joint Office of Homeless Services, the Street Services Coordination Center has designated shelter beds available to those impacted by campsite removals. We offer shelter beds to as many people experiencing homelessness as possible, we estimate that we have offered shelter beds to approximately 2,000 people from April - August 2022. The data below only represents the number of people who said they were interested in a shelter referral and a call was made to determine availability.

Here is the Streets Services Coordination Center shelter referral information for August 15 - 21, 2022:

43 people expressed an interest in a shelter referral

40 people accepted shelter referrals

27 people used a shelter bed for at least one night

Since April 11, 2022 the Streets Services Coordination Center has offered shelter referrals to a total of 756individuals, and a total of 322people have used a shelter bed for at least one night.

Campsite assessment, cleanup and removal highlights

**Please note that campsite removals were paused from Wednesday, August 17 at 1 p.m. through the end of the day due to high temperatures. Under normal circumstances, per the City’s campsite removal policy, the City suspends campsite when the National Weather Service issues an excessive heat warning for Portland. Last week, in an excess of caution, we proactively paused removals so we could focus on distributing water and cooling kits to those experiencing homelessness. Rapid Response continued to remove trash and abandoned campsites**

From August 15 - 21, 2022, the Impact Reduction Program:

Received3140 new campsite reports in which 1180 were reports regarding three locations along SE Powell Blvd, including 451 reports of people living in vehicles
Observed about 328 active campsites, accounting for duplicate reports about the same locations
Assessed approximately 641 campsites, engaging with people living there, collecting garbage and biohazardous materials, and coordinating with service providers
Cleaned 14campsites, removing only identified garbage and biohazardous materials
Removed 64campsites that posed a risk to health and safety, safely storing campers' personal property

Summary

Shelter referrals offered: 43
Shelter referrals accepted: 40
Shelter beds used: 27
Campsite reports received: 3140
Active campsites observed: 328
Campsite assessments: 641
Campsites cleaned: 14
Campsites removed: 64