Homeless camps to be dispersed in Roseburg parks
Word has spread that they’re coming, the cleanup of scores of homeless encampments that have proliferated in Roseburg parks, along riverbanks and under bridges.
Yet no one, it seems, knows where to put the homeless individuals who are about to be displaced from their makeshift homes, or how to provide their most basic needs: shelter, water, a toilet, a place to wash their hands.
For more than a year now city officials have followed state and federal guidelines and not dispersed homeless encampments, allowing them to exist in violation of city laws. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that leaving the camps alone would minimize the spread of the coronavirus. At the same time, Gov. Kate Brown issued executive orders that called for local governments to allow the unhoused to shelter in place.
But with the pandemic on the wane, Brown’s executive orders have been rescinded. And that means that beginning Tuesday, Roseburg officials will begin the process of clearing out the homeless camps. On Monday, a city-run committee of homeless advocates and service providers met to discuss how best to help the homeless population, and many in the group expressed concern and frustration about the coming displacements.
Read more https://www.nrtoday.com/news/government/city/roseburg_government/homeless-camps-to-be-dispersed-in-roseburg-parks/article_dda63753-182b-5f2e-acb1-fabe3374938a.html
(Roseburg News-Review)