The city of Portland, on the taxpayer dime, is taking problem RVs from one street to another, dumping them outside homes without warning anyone in the neighborhood.
The problem is playing out in Northeast Portland.
The RVs were picked up from one area and moved just a few blocks over, leaving trash behind.
The new neighbors are now worried about the future of their street, and they want answers from the city.
They are also frustrated. They were given no warning ahead of the drop-off and no explanation from the city after.
Kathryn Groves came home from work one day to find several new neighbors.
She soon learned the city of Portland contracted a towing company to drop off the RVs, which are homes to several people dealing with houselessness.
They'd previously called Jim Emmons’ neighborhood, just a matter of blocks away, home, where trash lined the street.
What was left behind gave a glimpse into what Emmons lived with for the past year.
"We'd seen them stripping down cars. They threatened some neighbors," he said.
Emmons said he only had problems with one of the trailers. The family, he said, just seemed to be going through a hard time.
Elected leaders rejected KATU’s request for interviews. The city instead provided John Brady, the spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
He confirmed that is was not legal for the people to be living at their original location.
Brady went on to say the homeless crisis is larger than PBOT and that inside the RVs, are people.
"We have to be as compassionate and humanitarian as we can be," he said.
Brady says the city only moved the RVs because where they'd previously been, at 60th and Hassalo, is near a future construction zone, and it wouldn't have been safe for them to stay.
But why on Groves’ street?
Brady said one of the RV residents needs to access services nearby and another works in the area.
When asked why the city didn’t just knock on doors to inform neighbors what was about to happen, Brady said: "Yeah, you know, that’s a great question, because this is temporary, we don’t do the full-on neighborhood notification."
He said the city doesn’t know how long the RVs will be there.
The city is working to get these unhoused neighbors into something more permanent and off the street.