Wheeler announces designated tent camping site in southeast Portland

Last fall, the City Council approved a $27 million homeless services funding package that included $4.2 million for capital costs for three designated camping sites and $12.8 million for operational costs for one year of three designated camping sites. The city wants Multnomah County to fund three more sites.

Wheeler said the first location on Southeast Gideon Street “will help provide safe designated camping locations for homeless Portlanders who then can access basic services like food, restrooms, showers, laundry, electricity and storage facilities.”

The designated camping area will “create the transition space to help people stabilize and decompress from the hyper-vigilant state that they experience on the streets,” Urban Alchemy contracts and reporting manager Ian Clark-Johnson said at a press conference Thursday, March 9.

The controversial plan approved last fall, crafted by Wheeler and Commissioner Dan Ryan, also allows the city to ban homeless camping in unsanctioned encampments as more designated tent sites and shelters open up.

The Southeast Gideon Street site, in the Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood’s industrial area, is expected to open up by this summer, Wheeler said.

Urban Alchemy was one of only two providers — neither locally-based — to submit a proposal to operate Portland’s designated tent camping sites. Wheeler said Urban Alchemy will have their headquarters at the Gideon Street site but will likely run more than one of the tent shelter sites. Urban Alchemy will also offer trash disposal and collect hazardous waste from a 1000-foot perimeter of the site, Wheeler said. The sites will be fenced and have round-the-clock security.

“These sites will have rules. There will be no unsanctioned camping within 1,000 feet of this site. There will be no cooking or fires allowed. Alcohol and drug use will not be allowed in common areas or public spaces. These sites will have security, weapons will be checked at the entrance,” Wheeler said.

Kirkpatrick Tyler, Urban Alchemy’s chief of government and community affairs, said many people have had traumatic experiences in traditional shelters.

“For a lot of people, what they found is some sense of independence in their tents, a sense of ownership in their tents, and so a ‘safe sleep’ is really an introduction back into what it means to be a part of a community,” Tyler said. The supervised tent camping sites “provide an opportunity for people to get rest without the worry that something is going to happen to them, to their belongings, and oftentimes their partners and their pets.”

There isn’t a time limit for how long people can stay at a site, but Tyler said the average stay could be anywhere from three to nine months.

“The whole point of this is to connect people to services. I don’t view these as a permanent living solution for anyone,” Wheeler said.

The lease with the property owner hasn’t been finalized, but Wheeler said all the details had been worked out and he was “not even remotely worried we won’t get a lease.” Wheeler declined to say the cost or duration planned for the lease. The estimated capital cost per tent site is $14,000, Wheeler’s communications lead Cody Bowman said.

Skyler Brocker-Knapp, Wheeler’s senior policy advisor, said additional tent camping sites were nearing the final stages.

The tent camping sites are different than the Safe Rest Villages the city has also created, which offer pods.