(Headline USA) Portland families are leaving the city in droves as homeless encampments make their way into suburban neighborhoods and crime continues to rise, according to a local report.
“It makes you not feel that great about living here. It makes living in the neighborhood harder, not as congenial as it could be,” 30-year Portland resident Greg Dilkes said of the homeless encampment along the Peninsula Crossing Trail near his home.
“It’s the first time in a long time that we’ve actually seriously thought about moving.”
Another resident said people no longer feel safe in the city.
“Every day if you go from one end of the street to the other, you’re confronting some very difficult situations, people in really dire straits,” the resident said.
In the past few months, at least three families along McKenna Avenue have moved because of homeless encampments.
““I would say the migration to the suburbs, I’ve seen quite a bit in the last two years. Most people don’t want to have to worry about if they can leave their car parked in their driveway overnight without maybe having it broken into. It’s a pretty testy subject,” real estate broker Lauren Iaquinta said.
The homeless people who have invaded their neighborhoods, however, argued families have nothing to worry about.
“We are the most harmless people you’ll ever meet,” said TT Sanchez, a homeless person who lives in one of the camps along the Peninsula Crossing Trail. “They shouldn’t be scared of us – for what, because we live outside?
“That’s the only reason you should be scared of us because we live outside? So if we lived in four walls and a house and stuff would you still be scared of us?”
Portland has been under a housing and homelessness emergency since April 2015, but has seen a 20.5% increase in homelessness from 2014 to 2020.
The city also saw more homicides in 2021 than San Francisco, and more than double the amount of Seattle.
