Portland spent $2 MILLION for homeless tents blocking sidewalks trends now
Disabled residents suing Portland over scores of homeless encampments blocking city sidewalks have discovered the city spent at least $2million in taxpayer funds to buy those tents and tarps.
Plaintiffs learned that Multnomah County's Joint Office of Homeless Services (JOHS) used the millions to buy 22,000 tents and 70,000 tarps for its homeless residents, but kept basically no record of who got the supplies or where they were set up.
The lawsuit alleges the Oregon city is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act by allowing tents to build up unchecked across the city and block disabled people's abilities to safely navigate the city sidewalks.
Over the past four years the city has also spent at least $26.6million over the last four years cleaning up camps it helped fund. Representatives for Mayor Ted Wheeler defended the expenses, insisting they were mitigating the city's 'public health emergency.'
A homeless encampment blocking the sidewalk in Portland, Oregon. Disabled residents say they can't get around the city because of the camps
Mayor Ted Wheeler's office defended the expenses, insisting they were mitigating the city's 'public health emergency'
The attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case, John DiLorenzo, uncovered the tent and tarp funds in the lawsuit's discovery phase.
'The taxpayers are paying the county to put tents in place, which the city is, in turn, charging the taxpayers to sweep up,' he said, according to Fox News. 'It's sort of like trying to walk up the down escalator.'
'You provide them [with] 22,000 tents and tarps over a couple of years, we believe the likelihood is quite high that most of those tents and tarps are what ended up on the sidewalks, streets, and in the parks,' he said.
The lawsuit seeks to have the city remove all encampments - which total more than 30,000 - from across the city's sidewalks and parks.
A man walks through a homeless camp filled with tents on the streets of Portland
Tents set up on the sidewalk of Portland. There are thousands across the city's sidewalks
A spokesperson person for the JOHS said its employees who deal with homeless
