Since the City of Portland’s Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program was created in 2015, the public and media members alike have asked for more access to the City’s response to unsanctioned camping in the city.
After years of development, the Impact Reduction Program’s interactive data dashboard is now live – and provides access to real-time data about campsite reports, site assessments, posting notifications and completed campsite removals.
It includes an up-to-date map of all reported campsites, the status of campsite assessments, campsites posted for removal and campsites which have been removed. Visitors can choose to view campsite information from the past 10 days, 1 month, 2 months, 6 months, or the past year by selecting the appropriate tab in the upper righthand corner of the page.
Additional options for customized views include locations of campsites that have been reported, individual site assessment scores and neighborhood boundaries. To view this information, select the corresponding layer in the top right corner of the map.
Dashboard visitors can view photos of campsites posting notifications, and before and after photos of completed campsite removal projects.
Information contained in the data dashboard is directly populated from online reports submitted by community members, assessments and postings performed by contract employees, work orders created by Impact Reduction Program staff members and completed work assignments.
“I am grateful to the IRP and Street Services Coordination Center teams for working to build this valuable resource which is part of my commitment to good governance, increased transparency and improved responsiveness to our community," said Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler.
Additionally, a bar graph on the bottom left of the screen shows the number of assessments by month and the distribution of scores over the past year.
The City prioritizes the removal of camps that pose the highest health and safety risk to the community. The red portion of the bars represent high risk sites, orange are moderate risk and the green represent sites that present low health and safety risk.
The criteria used to determine risk includes the amount of trash, biohazardous waste and drug paraphernalia; whether ADA access is being blocked; proximity to schools, parks, retail and hospitality business, or playgrounds; the number of tents and structures present; and whether public access and maintenance activities are restricted. Action can be taken on camps that do not meet these criteria if there is criminal activity, they are located on a High Crash Corridor or Safe Routes to School or otherwise determined necessary by the Street Services Coordination Center Incident Commander. The number of reports received about a particular site does not impact the City’s response time – this is to ensure a transparent and equitable process.
Anyone interested in information about campsites prior to the last year can view weekly reports online, and anyone interested in receiving future reports straight to their inbox can subscribe to the weekly reports online.