Oregon County Will Continue Providing Tents to Homeless Even as Portland Pays Millions to Remove Them

Multnomah County, Oregon will continue to provide free tents to homeless people despite opposition from residents and Portland leaders who are spending millions of dollars to remove tent encampments from their city’s sidewalks as part of a legal settlement.

Multnomah’s County’s interim tent-distribution policy, which was discussed at a work session this week and quietly adopted, says tents and tarps are “life-saving supplies” for homeless people, and they “mitigate the poor health outcomes associated with unsheltered homelessness and provide a limited level of safety, security, and privacy.” Tents also “serve as relationship-building resources” for outreach providers.