New Clark County-based organization pushes for homeless camping ban

Clark County Matters, a fresh nonprofit advocating for change in Vancouver and the rest of the county, is focusing its inaugural campaign on the homelessness issue in the county.

Amy Harris, executive director of Clark County Matters, sent out a petition on Tuesday, Sept. 3, urging residents to send a letter to elected officials in Clark County to implement and enforce a camping ban.

Harris based her nonprofit’s campaign from a research project poll conducted in August 2023. The poll surveyed 500 likely Clark County voters and cited the city of Portland as an example of the path Vancouver and the county as a whole are trending toward. On the Clark County Matters website, Harris believes Portland is a “cautionary tale of what happens when the moderate majority is too slow to make their voices heard,” she stated.

“The direction our elected leaders are going is different than what people would like in the county and Vancouver, overall,” Harris said, based on the findings in the August 2023 poll.

The poll found that 84% of the 500 surveyed are concerned that “Vancouver will become like Portland with increased homeless camps, open air drug use and crime.”

With a large group of voters focused on the homelessness issue in Clark County, Harris is currently pointing Clark County Matters in that direction, she said.

The poll also showed that 70% believe “Portland-style” issues could ruin Vancouver’s Waterfront district; 67% believe Vancouver and surrounding areas have become more dangerous in recent years; 75% say homeless encampments have increased; and only 16% of the local voters surveyed believe the county’s elected leaders are listening to their constituents.

Harris believes the county and cities should have less homelessness, with hopes of zero homelessness in the future if the resources were to be allocated.

“We’re not a big enough city to justify the homelessness we have right now,” Harris said. “I’ve lived in large cities where you expect some of that because there are services there. This is really just a problem that we let get really out of control.”

When it comes to proposing solutions for the homeless crisis in Clark County, Harris said she is not a policy expert, but ideally would like to see more shelters. She said, with a camping ban, the unhoused would have two options: shelter or jail, modeled after Portland’s ordinance allowing the city to fine or jail homeless people if shelter beds are available but they refuse to go. Portland’s ordinance went into effect at the beginning of July.

In early 2024, the Council For The Homeless’ Point In Time report documented 483 unhoused individuals in emergency shelters, 214 in transitional housing and 669 left unsheltered.

Harris said the city of Vancouver is starting to take action against the homeless crisis. The city of Vancouver proposed a 150-bed shelter in an existing building located at 5313 NE 94th Ave., in the Van Mall neighborhood.