HUCIRP to clear homeless camp near school ahead of students return to class

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    PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — Portland Public Schools will be heading back to class in just a few short days but it’s not the classrooms that have some parents worried.

“As an adult, I feel uncomfortable over there at times as well, so I don’t know how kids could be comfortable,” Rick Oskin, a Sunnyside Environmental School parent, said.

The concern is about homeless camps in the Sunnyside Environmental School’s backyard.

“So, where the kids go out and play at recess, there are tents right on the other side of the fence and there’s also a, probably 2-foot boulders separating the public space from the recess space,” Oskin said.

Oskin has a third and seventh grader that go to Sunnyside and said he’s worried about kids going back to school with these camps so close.

“There’s around 20 tents, RV’s,” Oskin said. “There’s been various incidents at the park that I just don’t feel safe with my kid attending school, you know, going out to recess with it, surrounded by a camp.”

Oskin said this issue is especially concerning considering there have been safety issues before.

“It’s an environmental school, so there’s gardening and there have been needles found in the dirt when kids were gardening. I’ve personally cleaned up feces in the park as well, right? So, it’s just not a safe place for kids,” he said.

He said he’d like the city or PPS to clear this camp before Friday. We reached out to the city to see if they had any plans to clear the camps before then. They sent a statement saying they would clear it before kids get back in class:

“The Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program (HUCIRP) has been aware of the situation at Sunnyside School for several weeks and we have been collecting garbage at that site on a regular basis. We have also visited the individuals residing there to provide assistance and referrals and have asked them to move to a different location. As soon as we learned that schools were opening, we made a plan for campsite removals and notified all the people who were camping there of our plans. We posted Sunnyside School on Friday and although it’s still in progress, we had our work crews there yesterday and three crews were on site today. We’re continuing to clear the site and our intent is to have the playground area and surrounding side streets completely clear by Thursday afternoon.”

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