Portland Mayor Keith Wilson plans to soon resume enforcing the city’s homeless camping ban after a monthslong hiatus, one of his senior advisers said Wednesday.
Skyler Brocker-Knapp, who oversees Portland’s homeless services and livability programs, told participants at a bi-weekly meeting focused on downtown issues that police will begin issuing citations again Nov. 1 to those not in compliance with the city’s time, place and manner rules, according to a video recording of the remarks obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
City first responders and teams of social service workers will spend the next several weeks doing outreach about the camping ban, Brocker-Knapp said.
“We will need to educate folks on the street on what the rules are, what they are able to do, what they are not able to do,” she said.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ordinance, which went into effect in July 2024, prohibits people who have been offered reasonable shelter from camping on public property or rights-of-way.
Those who violate the ban can face penalties, including citations, fines, arrest and jail time. The rules also direct homeless individuals that they must keep their camping area tidy if they can’t access shelter.
Wilson, however, has been reluctant to impose those rules while he’s worked to increase the number of overnight shelter beds in the city. In August, the mayor told the Portland City Council that police stopped enforcing the camping ban in February — just one month after he took office.
“The mayor really wanted to get services online before we engaged in any kind of citation for those types of time, place, manner violations,” Brocker-Knapp said at the meeting Wednesday. “For those who do not accept those services, this is a tool in the tool box for police that they will be able to start using again.”
During the meeting, convened by the city’s Public Management Environment Office, Brocker-Kanpp repeatedly emphasized that enforcement would focus on citations and not more punitive measures.
“This citation piece is not an arrest,” she said. “It’s just a time place manner violation citation.”