While city and county agencies, as well as mutual aid groups, distributed water bottles, cooling supplies and information about extreme — and likely deadly — heat, city contractors swept homeless encampments.
Internal Rapid Response BioClean data shared with the city’s Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program, or HUCIRP, lists 12 sites finished after an excessive heat warning went into effect July 25 at noon. The data lists half of those sites for July 26, the day temperatures reached a record 102 degrees in Portland.
The problem with the internal data, according to the city, is it’s unreliable. In addition to the spreadsheet including everything from picking up a couple bags of trash to full encampment sweeps — which are virtually indistinguishable based on the information provided by the city — the time stamp included with each listing is generated when the project is marked as complete.
Ultimately, contractors only swept six of the 12 sites, according to Cody Bowman, Mayor Ted Wheeler's spokesperson. However, of the 12 sites listed in Rapid Response BioClean’s data, eight locations correspond with sites listed as “posted for removal” in recent “Weekly Street Services reports.”
Due to the rate at which contractors cleared people from encampments one day and cleaned trash the next, or completed one day and submitted the next (or several days later, in some cases), the city had to view individual photos with each listing to ensure no sweeps took place after July 25 at noon.
While the city said each listing was above board from its perspective, the close proximity — and potential overlap — of sweep activity and the record-breaking heat wave highlights just how down to the wire sweeps were. Portland was under a state of emergency for nearly three days before July 25 at noon when the city says it halted sweeps. Additionally, witnesses and Rapid Response BioClean tell a very different story regarding one sweep listed in the data, which the city acknowledges dragged on through the morning of July 26.
Street Roots obtained the internal data through a public record request after an unnamed city staff member refused to provide similar information in an email from the “Street Services Coordination Center media requests” account.
A subsequent unsigned email from the same account told Street Roots sweeps were paused July 25 at noon when the excessive heat warning went into effect. The deadline aligns with Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program policies spurred by a recent legal settlement over sweeps.
The city does not deny the vast majority of sweeps happened with, at most, only days of lead time before July 25 at noon, the first of seven consecutive days of near-100 degree heat.
Even if the rules were followed
From July 19, when the Joint Office of Homeless Services started distributing supplies in advance of extreme heat, until July 25 at noon, city contractors conducted 48 actions at encampments, according to Rapid Response BioClean’s data.
Of the 48, 23 occurred on or after July 22, the day Wheeler declared a state of emergency in preparation for extreme heat. While the city maintains data obtained by Street Roots includes more than sweeps, the city's weekly report lists 45 sweeps from July 18 through July 24.
Still, the city elected not to pause sweeps until the very moment the excessive heat warning took effect. According to additional notes for the data provided by Bowman, at least three sweeps were completed the morning of July 25 — the latest ending at 11:04 a.m.
The city declined to provide a direct answer when asked if it stood by the decision to allow encampment removals for nearly three days after declaring a state of emergency.
Advocates for homeless Portlanders argue the city’s actions were callous, inhumane and dangerous, as sweeps ultimately force homeless Portlanders to engage in strenuous physical activity when removing their belongings during a sweep. The cycle of laborious uncertainty can continue for days after a sweep as people search for a new place to bed down.
“The National Weather Service predicts that heat could pose high risk for much of the population, especially those who are heat sensitive and those without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration,” Wheeler’s July 22 emergency declaration acknowledged.
Critics say the city’s actions further compounded risks for “those who are heat sensitive and those without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration” — a phrase disproportionately describing homeless Portlanders.
Location, location, location
Wren Ronan, Portland Street Medicine director of services, said sweeps frequently displace medically vulnerable people, in turn complicating Portland Street Medicine staff’s attempts to follow up with people.
“It's very worrisome, because we may have been in the middle of care coordination, we may have been working on getting them a medication that could be life saving during the event,” Ronan said about losing track of someone’s location. “And so, it becomes nearly impossible to find them in a matter of a few days to ensure that they have those resources and tools.”
Ronan said sweeps are traumatic regardless of the timing but said the city’s policies regarding sweeps immediately preceding extreme weather events only serve to compound that issue when the stakes are, quite literally, life or death.
“We have lost individuals throughout the winter, during severe weather events, because they've lost their medication, and were unable to access it in time and make a plan with their communities on how to access those resources quickly enough over a weekend to be able to be okay,” Ronan said. “It's hard to say what will happen but we know the trends and we’ve seen loss of life. And it might not be directly tied to sweeps and I know that's hard to track. But after providing care and seeing all these other health impacts that tie in to severe weather and climate change, we can expect it to be similar in an event like this.”
Ronan made sure to note heat stroke is not the only concern during a heat wave. Many health conditions, from cardiovascular issues to lung conditions, which Ronan said are disproportionately common on the streets, are also affected by extreme heat.
“When there's weather that really forces folks to go outside their routine seek a cooling shelter or a warming shelter, or a motel room, or really do something that requires them to leave their space in order to survive, that puts folks under a whole slew of new threats."
— Connor Magee, development and programs assistant for local nonprofit Rahab’s Sister
“So many other health conditions are impacted by high heat and the ability to navigate even to resources that you're familiar with,” Ronan said. “I just think that looking at a whole person and their whole day, rather than just these micro-windows of what that means and how it could be dangerous — it's important to be reevaluated is the main thing.”
When Street Roots asked if Wheeler’s office and staff from the Street Services Coordination Center and HUCIRP felt the policy to conduct sweeps before extreme heat events put homeless Portlanders at an increased risk, no one answered the question.
To Ronan, there was no clear answer for what, if any, amount of lead time could be ‘enough,’ stressing each individual has different needs and circumstances. But, when asked if the city’s current policies increase the risks for homeless Portlanders, the answer was an unequivocal “yes.”
“Being displaced, and being unsure where you're going to be able to go during an event like this, especially if overnight shelters have not been made available yet, and the strenuous activity, the likelihood of dehydration, the stress of not being sure where you can camp, where your belongings will be, and the potential for not having medications that are life saving during events that increased respiratory risk and cardiac arrest,” Ronan said. “I would say it’s pretty detrimental.”
Connor Magee, development and programs assistant for local nonprofit Rahab’s Sister, said even the most basic logistics during extreme weather events become a hurdle without additional complications created by city actions.
“When there's weather that really forces folks to go outside their routine seek a cooling shelter or a warming shelter, or a motel room, or really do something that requires them to leave their space in order to survive, that puts folks under a whole slew of new threats,” Magee said. “That condition of having to leave and go seek a safe place just introduces all these new factors.”
Magee, who has conducted street outreach in Southeast Portland for two years as part of his work responsibilities and personal volunteering, highlighted people needing to leave their belongings somewhere and public transportation failures in extreme weather as existing logistical concerns.
In addition, experiencing a sweep immediately before an extreme weather event puts people at a substantial disadvantage.
“The idea of having to move, having to start up new relationships, having some of the stuff that you needed for survival having been taken by a crew … (sweeping encampments) just a few days prior to a truly life threatening heat wave,” Magee said. “It's horrifically negligent of the city to create that condition for folks.”
Magee, who used the word “negligent,” multiple times when describing the city’s current policies, said it’s the most charitable possible way to describe it.
“At best, it’s just negligent by the city,” Magee said. “At worst, it’s just evil.”
Magee and Ronan’s concerns about last week’s extreme heat are far from hyperbolic. As of Aug. 1, the Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s program already announced seven suspected heat-related deaths.
Magee witnessed Rapid Response BioClean working in an encampment near the Interstate 205 multi-use path July 25 — where city contractors swept the previous week.
Magee said workers told him they were only cleaning the camp, which quickly began to reconvene, but also told him they were unaware of any special accommodations due to heat.
Magee said a lack of awareness on the part of Rapid Response BioClean workers, who are not social workers, and a lack of communication rendered to homeless Portlanders is common. From Magee’s experience witnessing sweeps first hand and speaking with homeless Portlanders in the aftermath of sweeps, the first stages of a sweep are almost identical to a camp cleanup.
“I don't personally believe that Rapid Response as an organization is able to create enough of a perceived distinction for camp residents for there to be any valuable difference in the experience of being swept versus experiencing a cleanup,” Magee said. “I think for most folks who I've talked to, a cleanup, they're just going to interpret that as like the first day of the long process of a sweep. And I do know, certainly, that folks don't really believe that they can trust Rapid Response crews."
Magee’s experience of cleanups and sweeps being virtually indistinguishable cuts to the core of a little-acknowledged difficulty with the city’s current system, and may speak directly to a 'voluntary' July 26 sweep listed in Rapid Response BioClean’s data.
Clear bags, gray area
“I was on my way over to this one at (Southeast 66th Avenue and Powell Blvd.) … We've seen campers there for, I think, a couple months,” Becky Hawkins said. “And from about a block away, you could see a really big truck, and just big, clear plastic bags of belongings and just a lot fewer campers than there used to be, and a lot fewer things.”
Hawkins, a Southeast Portlander who regularly rides her bike near an encampment at Southeast 66th Avenue and Southeast Powell Blvd., said she was shocked when she arrived at the camp to pass out frozen water bottles the morning of July 26.
“It just seems like the opposite of constructive,” Hawkins said of the apparent sweep. “It’s a time that people need shelter, they need to not be placed under physical strain and they need things like water. It’s great if they have cooling shelters they can go to, but taking away the first two things … it seems cruel and the opposite of constructive.”
The clear bags Hawkins noticed raise an alarm for those familiar with the ins and outs of sweeps in Portland — clear bags typically denote property collected during a sweep, while black bags are typically used for trash.
Hawkins said it appeared she arrived near the tail end of whatever happened at the site that morning. Regardless, what she witnessed was consistent with Magee’s experience regarding a lack of clarity.
“I talked to one of the people who was taking a tent down, who said that he didn't know where he was gonna go after this,” Hawkins said. “He heard about some other place that was walking distance but just literally didn't know where he was gonna go. And it wasn't super hot yet, but this was the day that it was supposed to get to 103. And it was the beginning of the … five-day heat wave — it was hotter than you would want to have to take down a tent and then carry anything any kind of a distance.”
Even in the best of circumstances, the lines between trash collection, camp cleanups and bonafide sweeps are razor thin. While the city said all “property collection” halted July 25 at noon, many sweeps don’t include property collection — some people have so few usable belongings that strapping all of them to their back, bicycle or vehicle during a sweep is possible.
During trash collection, workers are to only collect trash as identified by homeless Portlanders. During cleanups, homeless Portlanders are asked to move belongings aside if they’re present, allowing workers to more thoroughly clean an area. During sweeps, homeless Portlanders are required to move belongings aside if they’re present, and leave an area.
“The Impact Reduction Program, outreach workers, and contracted employees performing campsite removals focus on service outreach and removing camper-identified trash only during an Excessive Heat Warning,” Skyler Brocker-Knapp, Wheeler’s senior policy advisor said in a statement provided by Bowman.
Hawkins said she didn’t know what exactly workers told people at the Southeast 66th Avenue and Southeast Powell Blvd. encampment, but people packed up their belongings, placed some in clear property collection bags, and left. This series of events matches a sweep.
The only difference between what happened at the site and what commonly happens during a sweep is that those clear property collection bags may have never made it to a storage facility after people left the area. According to witnesses, workers left the bags to sit throughout the day.
According to Hawkins, people eventually returned to the area late that evening.
According to a Rapid Response BioClean explanation provided via Bowman, people at the encampment voluntarily left for cooling shelters and asked Rapid Response BioClean to take the property into storage, which it says ultimately happened.
Pre-post
The lack of clarity for homeless Portlanders is likely compounded by another city practice leading up to heat waves.
From July 18 through July 24, the city posted 75 encampments for removal, according to its weekly report, including seven of the 12 encampments listed for actions completed after July 25 at noon. An additional site from the 12 was posted from July 11 through July 17.
Of the seven encampments posted between July 18 and July 24, one was the Southeast 66th Avenue and Southeast Powell Blvd. location.
The city refused to say if it communicated with homeless Portlanders during or after the postings about the impending heat wave and likelihood sweeps would be paused.
The city also refused to say if any contractors or city staff removed postings when it became clear the National Weather Service was issuing an excessive heat warning.
The city did say, however, staff and contractors may continue posting sites throughout the heat wave.
“Camp assessments and postings may continue through a heat emergency,” Brocker-Knapp’s statement said.
Magee said recent postings, combined with a lack of communication from contractors, may contribute to outcomes of cleanups or trash collection being tantamount to sweeps.
“If there's an active notice up in a camp — this is just anecdotal, what I feel like I've observed over the course of weeks — even if people don't start immediately making physical changes to their space trying to consolidate their belongings, it’s an immediate psychological toll to introduce that level of insecurity,” Magee said. “So, you know, sometimes folks do start cleaning up immediately because they gotta move. But even if that doesn't happen, it becomes an active worry.”
That active worry, in addition to a lack of trust for how Rapid Response BioClean conducts trash removals and cleanups, ultimately dissuades people from seeking out resources like cooling shelters.
“Oh, absolutely,” Magee said when asked if an active posting makes people feel less secure in leaving their encampments for resources. “That's always a really primary consideration for the folks that we spend time with, is this feeling of 'if I'm going to leave my tent or if I'm gonna leave my car, or whatever the living situation is I need to, one, be as quick as possible so that I'm back as soon as I can. Or two, make sure there's somebody here to watch my shit.'”
Dangers of heat and county preparations
Multnomah County officials announced a formal emergency declaration in a joint press release with Wheeler on July 22.
“This heat wave is going to last for several days,” Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury said in the release. “And with little relief at night, the risks are going to be compounded. We've been preparing for this event, getting cooling spaces ready and getting supplies, including cooling units and survival gear, to those most in need. It's not too late to make a plan and to check on your neighbors and loved ones.”
Denis Theriault, Multnomah County deputy communications director, said while the 2021 heat dome event showed housed people without air conditioning who lack the ability to get outside or open windows are at the highest risk during extreme heat events, a considerable threat still exists for homeless Portlanders.
“It’s dangerous for everyone in the community when it reaches the high temperatures we’re seeing, the duration of the high temperatures and then the relative lack of overnight cooling,” Theriault said. “Those factors are especially tough for folks who can’t be outside during the coolest parts of the night or can’t get a window open."
Last week, Theriault said it was possible temperatures could remain above 70 degrees at night, describing that type of nighttime warmth as a “threshold for risk.”
While temperatures did dip below 70 degrees at night throughout the heat wave, nighttime lows typically hovered between 67 and 69 degrees, and only for a few hours just before sunrise.
Theriault said the county proactively distributed more than 50,000 water bottles to volunteers, outreach workers and mutual aid groups ahead of the most extreme days of the heat wave beginning June 26, including more than 20,000 on June 25.
“Folks are outside in the heat,” Theriault said. “You don’t want to have folks waiting for the bottles to get picked up and then get taken to them. Part of that (early effort) was to start really frontloading that distribution before it was really awful outside.”
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