Clackamas County removes large homeless encampment as its residents struggle to tow vehicles

In a garden on Southeast Clackamas Road, there are pumpkins, strawberries and a variety of tomatoes. For three years, a woman lived in an RV and tended this garden. On Monday, she had to leave behind the garden that had provided maybe a third of her diet, and many of her worldly possessions.

Lisa — who did not provide her last name— was one of nearly a dozen residents forced to leave Clackamas Road, home to one of Clackamas County’s largest homeless encampments. They were evicted months after the Board of County Commissioners voted to gate and close the road, following years of concern regarding the garbage and crime taking place around the encampment.

“I have nowhere to go and I have no one to help me,” she said. “I’m feeling like I want to cry.”

With a population of more than 400,000, Clackamas County has no overnight shelters, while programs offering transitional housing are either full or have yearslong waiting lists.

Ownership of Clackamas Road, a dead-end road in an industrial area near Interstate 205, will soon transfer to two adjacent businesses, according to county officials, and it will become a gated private road.

Only deputies from the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office and one employee from the county’s transportation department were at the camp Monday. No service providers were present, although nonprofit Love One Community had been there over the weekend to provide parts for some vehicles.

Lisa had lived on Clackamas Road since she became homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic, and said it would be disorienting to leave.

Jaime Smith had most of her belongings packed by Monday, and then waited in hopes someone would tow her tent trailer to a different location. She’s been on a waiting list for transitional housing with the county for years — for now, she had nowhere to go.

“They want to get me into drug rehabilitation,” Smith said. “I don’t have a substance abuse issue, but that’s all that they have available.”

Eventually, one of Smith’s friends used their Honda Accord to tow her trailer.

The removal comes as Clackamas County has cracked down on derelict RVs and other vehicles. The county commission approved an ordinance in August allowing the sheriff’s office to more easily obtain warrants to remove vehicles that refused to leave.

Ross Clemson, the sheriff’s office public information officer, said the total cost for the clean up is so far unknown, but the agency towed three vehicles total, while all other vehicles were able to move.

Many of the residents decided to travel together. One Clackamas Road resident, Phil Wheeler, had the group’s only pick-up truck. He towed many broken-down trailers to a Fred Meyer parking lot, where members of the group would plan their next steps.

Most had no plan for where to go next. Others discussed traveling to a more rural part of the county, where maybe they could find more privacy.