PORTLAND — Four individuals experiencing homelessness filed a class-action lawsuit against the city of Portland Monday, alleging its contractors, including Rapid Response, have illegally discarded their personal items when razing encampments.
When kicking people out of an encampment, workers are required under a court ruling to collect and store property that people can’t immediately carry away, providing individuals 30 days to collect their items.
The lawsuit, first reported by OPB, said the city has repeatedly failed to do so. The plaintiffs said contractors don’t document or catalog the items they confiscate, providing no reliable way to guarantee property can be claimed. Itemized receipts are not given to individuals as proof of their possessions. The individuals argued this has often led to lost items, causing people to have to buy new tents, clothes and other provisions needed to survive.
“When a tent is all you own, (these actions) are aggravating and depressing,” Steven Black, one of the plaintiffs, told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “Even though a tent really isn’t a home, it is the best you have at the time because sleeping in a doorway really sucks.” Black said hehas gone weeks without a tent following multiple encampment evictions.
The lawsuit comes days after the city announced rule changes for how they remove encampments. City officials and contractors will continue to give individuals 48 hours’ notice before an eviction. However, the protocol change will eliminate the 24-hour compliance notice that typically would have come before the eviction notice. This means campers will have two days to pack up their belongings and move elsewhere before the city returns to remove any remaining items. Additionally, the outreach team is no longer required to work with individuals at high-impact campsites before posting an eviction notice.
“The city does not deny that its contractors systemically ignored the requirements of (the law) … nor has the city confirmed that it has adopted adequate policies and procedures to stop its contractors from continually to systemically ignore the requirements of (the law) moving forward,” attorneys argued in the lawsuit.
Mark Alejos, communications specialist for the city of Portland, said the city does not comment on pending litigation.
The plaintiffs did not ask for money but asked the city enforce its own policies to assure that people are able to fairly retain their possessions. Michael Fuller, Kelly Donovan Jones and lawyers from Oregon Justice Resource Center Juan Chavez and Franz Bruggemeier are representing the individuals for free.
WAKE UP AND GET OUT
While contractors must give people at least 48 hours’ notice of eviction, Rapid Response does not inform residents which day it will be back to demolish the encampment. Instead, contractors show up and inform people that they must move all their belongings in 15 to 30 minutes, according to the lawsuit.
In one instance, Rapid Response and Portland Police officers arrived at 7 a.m. and began yelling at each tent to “wake up and get out,” it said. In other instances, plaintiffs reported workers kicked their possessions into garbage bags.
The plaintiffs report that personal property from multiple campers is thrown together into clear garbage bags and labeled with the date and the location of the encampment. Organization and cataloguing does not extend beyond that, the lawsuit said.
“(Rapid Response workers) are friendly when they come pick up garbage on regular days but I just think their sweeps procedures need to be tightened up big time so people can get their stuff,” Black said. “I just wish they would do what they are supposed to do and photograph and itemize everything.”
Workers drop off the bags in a warehouse with towering shelves. People who want to reclaim their items must come and dig through the bags, the lawsuit said.
Street campers report they have lost tents, sleeping bags, blankets, tools, clothes, boots, household goods, bicycles, hygiene items, computers, work gear, tarps and wagons.
Scott Rupp, a plaintiff in the case, asked a police officer during one camp removal for a property receipt so that he could claim the items that were his at the warehouse but says he was ignored. He was worried that some of the items that were most important to him would get lost among the piles.
“They … took an irreplaceable and sentimental ring that (Rupp’s) late wife had given him,” the lawsuit alleged. “It was in one of the tents, in a box by his bed. He watched them bag everything up and toss it into the back of the truck.”
Black, one of the plaintiffs, reported that he was not able to find his property at the warehouse. He described his items to a warehouse worker and was told that someone had already taken those belongings. To prevent the city from taking more of his possessions, Black said he chose to sleep in doorways of businesses since he was afraid if he popped his tent up, he would be swept again. This meant he was further exposed to poor weather and COVID-19, the lawsuit said.
Another issue for many individuals is that they don’t have access to transportation to get to the warehouse or a way to carry the items to their new camping spot. The lawsuit notes that Rapid Response has told individuals that it will deliver items anywhere if not to the same spot where people were kicked out. However, that hasn’t been the case in practice, the lawsuit said.
“(Rupp) called Rapid Response and asked them if they could deliver his belongings to him. … They told him that they were too busy to do that,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also unveiled allegations that city contractors confiscated property such as computers or work supplies, inhibiting people from either looking for work or showing up to their job prepared and police officers often were rude or aggressive during their interactions with homeless individuals, it said.
“Rapid Response people don’t do their job like they are supposed to but they are pretty neutral in how they treat you,” Black said. “It’s the cops that act like schoolyard bullies. They just try to intimidate you.”
Rapid Response workers also confiscated cold-weather gear during some of the coldest months. Jennifer Bryant, another plaintiff, reported that Rapid Response destroyed her tent during a sweep, days before a severe winter storm in February. She has experienced four encampment removals in six months.
But Black believes that Rapid Response does have the ability to handle people’s property fairly.
“There’s a guy who lives near me that every time he has to go to the hospital, he calls Rapid Response and they immediately come and personally pack up his stuff for him so that it is safe while he’s in the hospital,” Black said. “So they do some good. But the sweeps are bad.”
