PORTLAND, Ore. — On a narrow strip of land between the sidewalk and the street, Becky Niemi draped her tarp over two shopping carts. Then, she spread out a purple quilt and settled in for the night.
Her snug spot offered protection from sporadic spring showers, and so long as she vacated by 7 a.m., a “safe-sleep policy” for the homeless is supposed to keep her from getting harassed by police.
“Before, they would threaten to throw you in jail if you had this up,” said Niemi, who says she has spent 12 years on the streets.
Portland Mayor Charlie Hales rolled out the new rules in February as a six-month experiment that explicitly authorizes — from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. — sleeping bags on the sidewalks and tents or other temporary structures on rights of way and some other city spaces.
Among West Coast cities grappling with homelessness, Hales’ policy represents a controversial move to establish a kind of rules of the road for the homeless who end up outside of organized camps and shelters.
The mayor has linked this initiative to other efforts that include police sweeps of large, illegal camps where the rules are not followed, and a push to establish more authorized tent encampments or tiny houses for temporary shelter.
“Most of our homeless population are simply looking for a safe night’s sleep, and have suffered needless trauma that comes with uncertainty about where that safe night’s sleep can be,” said a statement released by the city to explain the policy.
Hales’ approach is drawing attention from city officials in Seattle, where an ordinance allows people to sleep on the sidewalk but does not permit tents or other structures there or on most other city rights of way.
“We are following it closely,” Scott Lindsay, a special assistant to Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, said of Portland’s experiment. “It’s very new, and I wouldn’t want to judge it at this point. Each city is facing very similar issues and experiments in different ways to try and manage the challenge posed by a very large number of unsheltered people.”
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