Portland shedding residents as homeless encampments and crime dominate everyday life
Eden Villalovas
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Portland, Oregon, once one of the fast growing cities in the United States, is experiencing a population decline as crime, homeless rates, and encampments come to light as potential factors contributing to emigration.
Portland lost around 3% of the its population from 2020 to 2022, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, marking the sixth largest decline among 50 of the largest cities. Additionally, Oregon saw a statewide decline in population from 2021 to 2022.
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After over a decade of growth, Portland’s population began declining three years ago. However, Portland was not on the U.S. Census Bureau list of the 15 fastest-declining cities in this year’s report, but the city did make the list from July 2020 to July 2021.
Crime is an estimated factor in Portland’s population decline, with crime rates on the rise in recent years. Shooting incidents in the city have tripled from 2019 to 2022, with data from Portland’s Police Bureau showing 1,309 incidents last year compared to 413 nearly four years ago. Homicides have also climbed from 36 in 2019 to 101 last year, making it the deadliest year in the city’s history.
City leaders have faced pressure to address the large number of homeless encampments, another potential factor causing population loss. The homeless count in Oregon jumped 23% from 2020 to 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report.
Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler updated the city’s camping codes in an effort to tackle homelessness. Wheeler released a new daytime camping ban between the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. that would prohibit camps in certain spaces like parks and sidewalk areas, or near schools, construction sites, and other areas.
“We must continue to develop workable, and compassionate means to connect people to the services they need to get off and stay off the streets,” Wheeler said in a statement last month.
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The encampment updates come as Portlanders with mobility disabilities won a class action lawsuit with the city seeking to eliminate tents on sidewalks and holding Portland in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the federal Rehabilitation Act for failing to provide equal sidewalk access.
“I strongly believe that everyone should have access to sidewalks to navigate the City safely, and this is especially true for Portlanders with mobility challenges,” Wheeler said in an email statement to the Washington Examiner last month.