The Oregon Law Center has taken up the case of a group of homeless people who say they have been wronged by the Oregon Department of Transportation when it cleared out their encampment in Southeast Portland.
The suit maintains that the law requires ODOT to provide between 10 and 19 days notice before removing a homeless encampment and to follow specific protocols for removing and storing personal property removed from the camps. Those protocols were established in a 2011 settlement involving another group of homeless people also represented by the Oregon Law Center. That case was resolved, according to the center, only because ODOT agreed to change its policies and practices.
But according to attorney Monica Goracke, who is prosecuting the suit with the Oregon Law Center, ODOT has since changed its policies, as evidenced by a Oct. 3 sweep of a camp at 92nd Avenue and Flavel Street near Johnson Creek. The suit says ODOT now acts under a policy of removing camps with little or no notice under trespass laws, and no longer retains or stores all non-garbage property. The suit names Multnomah County and Sheriff Daniel Staton as defendents along with ODOT.
“I hope the lawsuit will cause ODOT and Multnomah County to follow the law — to provide adequate notice to homeless people before removing their things and take care of the belongings they remove,” Goracke said.
The class action suit was brought in behalf of Tammi Carr, Brian Shipley, Ryan Warfield, Douglas Lohr and Melody Perdew, all homeless individuals who were at the camp when it was swept. The suit was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court. ODOT has said it posted warning signs that it planned to clear personal property from the site three days in advance of the Oct. 3 sweep. But the lawsuit says signs were not readable from the camping site. On Oct. 2, an outreach worker toured the camp and told people a sweep was going to happen, but still not everyone knew, the suit claims. As a result, people who were not personally told of the sweep did not know it was going to happen and lost their belongings.
The property along Johnson Creek has been a regular campsite for people experiencing homelessness for years. It has been cleared out by ODOT on numerous occasions.
ODOT has said the sweep was done according to their policies worked out in advance with the state department of justice. ODOT maintains the camp was in a trespass zone, cleared under police supervision, and that personal belongings were stored by ODOT for 30 days.
The lawsuit claims ODOT’s actions violated the plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights to be free of unreasonable search and seizure.