PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — The Oregon Legislature passed a budget amendment bill last week that includes a one-time infusion of $20 million for the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) aimed at helping the department clean up homeless encampments along state highways.
ODOT said once the bill is signed by the governor, it plans to begin cleaning up highways by the end of April.
The omnibus budget bill makes amendments to the 2023-2025 budget, including the money to ODOT to “improve the health, safety, and livability of the Portland metro region.”
In December, the Portland Central City Task Force established by Gov. Tina Kotek recommended cleaning up highways to revitalize Portland.
With the $20 million, ODOT plans to use:
- $4 million for camp cleanup
- $4 million for graffiti removal
- $4 million for trash removal
- $8 million for access prevention — things like reinforcing fencing and putting up concrete barriers to prevent people from setting up camps
ODOT spokesperson Kacey Davey says ODOT has had a structural revenue issue for a while now, and spending is not keeping pace with what the agency is receiving. Resources are also a problem. The same crews that remove trash and graffiti from highways are the same crews that respond to crashes and winter storms.
“As you saw through the last winter, we had limitations on our maintenance, which was helped extremely by the $19 million that was provided by the Legislature,” said Davey. “And we haven’t always had enough funding or enough staff or resources to put towards the graffiti and the camp and the litter removal.”
Over the past three budget cycles, or six years, ODOT spent a little more than $20 million on highway cleanup. Davey says this one-time supplemental funding to be used in this budget cycle is significant.
“For example, the $4 million that we’re going to be using in conjunction with the city of Portland to work on homeless camps in the downtown area, that’s more than triple the amount of efforts and resources that we’ve been able to provide in the past with this money,” she said. “With this new $20 million that we have from the Legislature, not only do we have more funds, but we have ways of contracting private companies to help us do this work.”
But some people we talked to think the issue is more complicated than just clearing camps and removing graffiti.
“For 20 million bucks you could buy a couple buildings to let people sleep in,” said Mike, who didn’t want to give his last time. “The money could be used for actually funding housing people and services, rather than just a punitive or prohibitive action.”
“I would be happy to see the graffiti cleaned up, and the trash cleaned up,” said Anne Sihler. “I’m not so sure about moving camps, because I don’t know where people are going to live.”
The bill is now on the governor’s desk.
In a statement, Governor Tina Kotek said,
“I would like to thank the legislature for heeding the call from the Portland Central City Task Force to invest $20 million in graffiti abatement and trash clean up within the central city. This was among the top recommendations that the task force issued in December, and will bolster livability and beautification in Oregon’s largest city for residents and visitors.
I also want to thank my task force co-chair, Dan McMillan, CEO of the Standard, as well as the over 120 people – including community leaders, business owners and local elected officials – who engaged with the task force through the committee process for helping bring this idea forward and giving it the momentum to succeed.
Finally, I would like to thank the Oregon Department of Transportation for their partnership in this effort and for the work to come.”