I was alarmed to read “Vancouver’s Homeless Crisis — City might decriminalize camping” (Aug. 29).
Every time my car has been prowled in my driveway, I’ve found someone sleeping in my neighborhood park the next morning, when walking my dog. Since the Vancouver Police Department’s East Precinct has made the occasional patrol through the park during the morning’s wee hours, we haven’t had a prowling problem or an illegal camper. Making things as uncomfortable as possible for “homeless campers” keeps them out of my neighborhood park.
One need only look to the filth and incredible cleanup expense all over Portlandia for a reason to vigorously support our local camping ban. The only thing keeping homeless campers off the median strip along McGillivray Boulevard has been the ban on public camping. Decriminalizing camping will do nothing for local residents, but will open the door for Oregon to export all of their unwanted campers that were supposedly purged from the Springwater Corridor into their neighborhoods.
What’s next, city council? Are you going to relax parking regulations that will invite Portlandia’s zombie RV fleet into my neighborhood?
If we’re to spend money effectively on this menace, let’s find out where these people come from, then buy them one-way bus tickets back home.
