Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency July 2 due to extreme heat, but city contractors continued posting sweep notifications on homeless encampments throughout emergency
As Portland experienced deadly, record-breaking heat in early July and hundreds flocked to emergency cooling shelters, the city ordered its private contractors to post over 120 homeless encampments with sweep notifications. Advocates say the city potentially put lives at risk by doing so, as the county medical examiner suspects the near-triple-digit heat killed at least six Multnomah County residents of undetermined housing statuses.
Rapid Response Bio-Clean, the city’s primary private contractor for encampment sweeps, posted 121 encampment sites with sweep notifications from July 3 through July 9, a Street Roots analysis of data shared with the city’s Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program, or HUCIRP, found. Additionally, data indicates city contractors may have swept an encampment July 9, despite temperatures reaching 104 degrees in some parts of Portland.
Laura Rude, HUCIRP communications and data coordinator, initially told Street Roots the city’s contractors only collected trash during the heat wave in a July 10 email. Rude later acknowledged the city also had contractors continue posting sweep notifications in a July 15 email.
Sweep notifications inform homeless Portlanders city contractors will return in the next three to 10 days to remove their encampments. This typically involves contractors seizing — and potentially disposing — any property a homeless Portlander can't carry with them.
Commonly referred to as a camp being “posted,” homeless Portlanders told Street Roots people often leave before the end of the initial three-day period if they can in an effort to avoid losing their belongings. The city’s data shows at least 22% of encampments posted between July 3 and July 9 were vacated or swept by the end of the day July 10, when the city resumed normal sweep activity, and temperatures still reached the mid-90s.
Rapid Response posted 57 encampments with sweep notifications July 3, the same day Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency due to extreme heat retroactive to July 2 and continuing through July 7. Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson declared a county state of emergency July 5 through July 10.
Daily highs in some parts of Portland reached 99 degrees for five consecutive days beginning July 5, tying a record, according to the National Weather Service, which issued an excessive heat warning effective July 4 through July 9. Nonetheless, the city continued to post sweep notifications at encampments.
Of the 121 encampments posted for removal July 3 through July 9, contractors posted 57 on July 3, 48 on July 5 and 16 on July 8. Temperatures reached or exceeded 99 degrees on July 5 and July 8.
While encampments posted July 8 were not yet eligible for sweeps July 10, city contractors returned July 10 to sweep a substantial portion of encampments posted July 3 and July 5. The timing of the July 10 sweeps meant those homeless Portlanders would have had to pack up and move during the heat wave to avoid being swept, and some did. Over 25% of camps posted July 3 and July 5 were gone by the end of the day on July 10, when temperatures still exceeded 90 degrees.
July 3 was the last day Rapid Response crews swept encampments before July 10, according to Rude.
“We try to keep working hours available to contracted crews even during severe weather because losing a day of work for many of these employees is a real hardship,” Rude said in a July 15 email. “We were able to give people wage-earning hours by having our clean crews out doing garbage pickup, handing out water and electrolyte packets, distributing cooling towels, giving people information about cooling centers, and generally checking in on people during the heat emergency.”
Rude also said the encampments marked as removed July 9 were either garbage pick-up or sites with only vehicles and no tents or property outside of the vehicles for crews to pick up.
When questioned about a specific encampment marked as removed on July 9, she said the encampment was “mostly gone” when crews came out and acknowledged at least one person broke down their tent and left the site July 9 when Rapid Response arrived. In a July 15 email, Rude also shared notes from the crew saying the encampment was “packed up and moved by campers” July 9 and “marked complete.”
Advocates believe the city swept additional encampments it didn’t track.
Andrew Kualaau, Portland Street Medicine patient care manager, said he witnessed contractors sweeping homeless Portlanders in Old Town on days the city claims its contractors only picked up garbage. Kualaau wasn’t the only person with the nonprofit that provides free medical service to homeless Portlanders who had a different accounting of sweep activities during the heat.
Mads Inama, Portland Street Medicine peer resource navigator, said a peer coordinator connected with someone in the Hollywood neighboorhood July 9 moments before Rapid Response crews swept their encampment.
“Their things were strewn about and left in disarray,” Inama said. “The person who had been swept by Rapid Response said that they harassed him, took what they thought was valuable and then tossed the rest of this person’s belongings around along the sidewalk.”
Inama also said many didn’t know how extreme the weather would be when the heat wave set in, possibly leaving homeless Portlanders unprepared.
“So many people I talked with prior to the extreme weather hitting had no idea it was supposed to get as hot as it did,” Inama said. “How is someone supposed to prepare ahead of time? How is someone supposed to know how to access last-minute cooling stations, shelters and resources?”
Despite Wheeler overseeing the bureau that houses HUCIRP, a spokesperson from his office refused to answer questions in an unsigned email, saying Rude already answered the questions.
Kualaau said sweeps during extreme weather events not only pose physical and mental health risks but also cause a series of setbacks for homeless Portlanders trying to seek stable housing and employment. Paperwork and identification documents required to access traditional shelters can be lost among other belongings, he said.
“Sweeps increase hopelessness because they remind folks who are living outside that because they can’t afford rent, and because they have less money than their housed neighbors, the city devalues their worth as human beings,” Kualaau said. “People living outdoors regularly experience hostility and prejudice, so sweeps can contribute to a mental health crisis. Compounding pressures can culminate into a single event that results in people losing any traction they gained to find stable housing or employment because their personal items, such as paperwork, are lost or taken.”
Melissa Lang, Portland Street Medicine director of development, said when a patient’s health needs exceed what the organization can provide on the street, it helps them navigate the health care system. However, the organization often loses track of patients after sweeps occur.
“It's not just basic necessities that are lost but also personal items that help us feel connected as a whole person and stay linked to our own stories and who we are,” Lang said. “The loss and grief from having these things taken — family photos or phone numbers, memories of friends and connections to a community — can be shattering to one’s mental health, especially when you are already feeling at your lowest and most vulnerable. It's cruel and compounds one's struggle to navigate their way out of their situation.”
This isn’t the first time the city has failed to pause posting sweep notifications for encampments during extreme weather events. Street Roots reported contractors sweeping as many as eight sites during extreme heat in 2022 when temperatures reached up to 102 degrees.
For Kat Mahoney, Sisters of the Road executive director, the inconsistency of the city's procedures — providing aid while also posting sweep notifications — highlights a gap in city policy on how to properly support homeless Portlanders during extreme weather events.
“(The) city is not taking serious measures to create contingency plans when it comes to extreme weather issues — (the) county also is not doing it,” Mahoney said in a written statement to Street Roots. “We need proactive plans. Not reactive. Even if folks look back and say ‘we didn't need that’ — then that's good. We don't need a seatbelt every time we drive, but we wear it anyway. You don't need a bike helmet each time — you don't fall every time you ride, but you still wear it.
“If sweeps solved homelessness, we would have no one homeless across the world. This doesn't work. This is not a call to let people stay in tents. That's not OK either. The county and city must put plans into action that are tangible, realistic, and do not require five committees to figure out.”
Between July 3 and 10, the Joint Office of Homeless Services supply center, with the help of volunteers and mutual aid groups, provided individual bottles of water, electrolyte packets, sunscreen packets, cooling towels, reusable drinking bottles and misting bottles for those without shelter in Multnomah County, according to a July 12 press release.
Kualaau believes that despite these efforts, more needs to be done.
“There are not enough beds for everyone experiencing houselessness, and we really see the repercussions of this during extreme weather events,” Kualaau said. “Our city’s systems might improve if every politician experienced what it’s like to search through the snow and ice looking for people in tents, praying that there is no one in there and, if there is, that they are alive. If every politician were required to help people with heat exhaustion on the street, providing them with electrolytes, water, shade and cooling mechanisms, then shelters and housing might become more of a priority.
“I believe that those making the policies need to experience the reality of the crisis we are in."
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