The city of Portland is adopting a “more assertive approach” to dispersing encampments of people experiencing homelessness. The new guidelines allow city contractors to more quickly clear out campsites due to fire risk, biohazardous materials, reported criminal activity and tents blocking the sidewalk, among other reasons. This is an abrupt change in policy from the past 15 months when the city has adhered to CDC guidance, which cautioned against dispersing homeless camps to avoid spreading COVID-19.

Marisa Zapata is the director of the Portland State University Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative. She says requiring people to move out of these camps will promote destabilization, erode trust in service providers and lead to more criminalization of homelessness in general. Zapata joins us.