PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — KATU is On Your Side, digging deeper into how much taxpayers are spending on camp cleanup and graffiti removal.
Last week, the Legislature announced they’re giving the Oregon Department of Transportation an additional $20 million for highway cleanup in the Portland-metro area as part of a budget amendment for this biennium. This will cover clearing homeless camps and putting up barriers to prevent camping, picking up trash, and removing graffiti.
In the last budget cycle, ODOT spent $9.2 million for these services until the funding ran out.
“It’s a limitation we had on funding and also staff available,” said Kacey Davey at ODOT.
It’s a similar story at the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
PBOT spent $1.5 million for graffiti removal and trash removal in 2023, using a grant from the American Rescue Plan.
“Frankly, it’s been pretty limited over the years until we had this ARPA funding,” said Dylan Rivera, a spokesperson at PBOT.
ODOT and PBOT also have an agreement where ODOT reimburses PBOT up to $2 million a year for cleaning up trash and clearing homeless campsites on ODOT property within city limits.
Last year, Mayor Ted Wheeler said this wasn’t enough, and he asked the governor for double the amount.
“It nearly kills me to pause the work,” he told KATU News in February 2023. “It has temporarily been paused while we figure out a solution.”
More than a year later, the money is finally coming through, for now.
Both PBOT and ODOT say they still need a long-term solution.
“We’re doing as much as we can with the funds available,” said Rivera.
“We’ll be working with our partners in the Legislature and our other partners on a hopeful funding package for 2025, when we can get more funding to continue this and more sustainable funding in the future,” said Davey.
The funding bill, included in Senate Bill 5701, is now on the governor’s desk to be signed.