KATU 2 News | By Joe English | August 04, 2021
The City of Portland could be looking at another lawsuit over the way it has handled property seized during homeless camp sweeps.
This comes after a big sweep at Laurelhurst Park last week. According to an attorney and homeless advocate, personal property got destroyed when it should have been saved after the camp sweep.
Earlier this year, Attorney Michael Fuller filed a class-action lawsuit for four clients who say they didn’t have a chance to get their property back after a camp clean-up. So, before the big sweep last week, they planted 16 tracking devices they say show the city didn’t follow its own policies and procedures.
“They were concerned that with the increase in sweeps, that their personal property was going to be taken and not returned to them,” said Fuller.
According to the law, the city has to hold onto property seized during a homeless camp clean-up for 30 days so it can be claimed or picked up. Anything worth saving would go to a city storage facility.
Not only was the property not returned, Fuller says it couldn’t be because it was destroyed before anyone had a chance to pick it up. He says they tracked the stuff to the dump instead of the storage facility where it should have gone. The legal papers filed by Fuller’s office want to hear the city’s explanation as to why some stuff ended up in the garbage instead of in storage.
“We first want to give the city a chance to explain what happened, so today we’re serving the city with legal notices on behalf of our client, asking for an explanation of what happened to the property and asking the property to be returned or that our client be compensated for the value of the property,” explained Fuller.
KATU News tried to get a comment from the City of Portland to find out more about what happened. The Office of Management and Finance declined an interview and pointed us to its website where there’s a list of what can’t be saved, such as food, weapons, gas cans, and pets, and what must be saved, such as tents, sleeping bags, and cell phones.
When asked if it’s something that needs to be better defined, Fuller said, “Absolutely. And that’s part of the reason we filed the class action. We were calling on the city to implement better policies and procedures, including training procedures, so the people [who] have the very difficult job of going out and cleaning up these camps have more guidance on exactly what they’re supposed to do and how they’re supposed to make those determinations.”
KATU News also reached out to the mayor’s office as well as the city commission — specifically Commissioner Dan Ryan, who heads up homeless issues — to find out where the property should have ended up. We have not yet heard back.
Signs went up last month at Laurelhurst Park letting people know that if they were camping there, they would need to move their stuff. Fuller says it’s what happened after the sweep that needs some explaining.
“The city did give a fair warning, like the law requires, before doing a sweep. However, Oregon law is just crystal clear that during a sweep, that any personal property that is swept needs to be put in an inventory and stored for 30 days. And that’s the reason for the claim,” explained Fuller. “The law contemplates that people may not be able to gather all their personal belongings before a sweep.”
