PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The RV encampments along Sandy Boulevard have drawn complaints from residents to the Portland Street Services Coordination Center. Dozens of RVs and cars along that stretch in Northeast Portland spill into the neighborhoods near the thoroughfare.
But places for people who live in the RVs are extremely limited.
Neighbor Dolores Livesay told KOIN 6 News one encampment is near where a school bus picks up and drops off students.
“If we’re worried about them walking to school, well, they’re getting off a school bus and those things are there,” she said. “I have no more patience for it.”
Shortly after she notice a camp growing near I-84 and 122nd, the camp was cleared. But she wonders why it seems like there’s no plan for people living in their cars.
“They’re just not moving. It’s not working,” Livesay said. “I don’t know what he has to do, go to another city and see what works because what you’re doing is not working because they’re just moving.”
She said she has seen people poking around mailboxes and cars in the area.
“Somebody is looking in the cars. I’ve had a few people go through my recycling,” Livesay said. A neighbor sent her a picture, “I think it’s the next door neighbor’s yard, of a guy with a gun, like, in the middle of the night.”
But removing the RV camp takes towing and coordination with the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Conversations have gone on for years about where people living in their RVs or cars can go. The most comprehensive answer to KOIN 6 News came from Commissioner Dan Ryan’s office.
His office points to plans for one RV village, Sunderland Village, which is part of the Safe Rest Village program. The goal is to open 55 spaces there for vehicles.
“Sunderland won’t be enough to meet the need on its own, so we’re also working to develop additional locations outside the SRV model,” Denis Theriault, with Multnomah County and the Joint Office of Homeless Services, said in response to KOIN 6.
Metro also pointed to ongoing conversations at the Expo Center that have not been finalized at this time
There are some spots for vehicles at Multnomah Village but no standalone site is operational yet.
Livesay said she can only take so much.
“Unless something dramatic happens and we get some better leadership,” she said, “we’re gone.”