Homeless sweeps or “clean-ups” – forced physical removal of homeless encampments on public property – happen across the country from San Francisco to New York City, and right here in Corvallis.
Calls to end homeless sweeps have been made for years, especially during winter months, when people experiencing homelessness are more likely to die due to exposure to the elements. However, the urgency of these calls has been increased during the pandemic. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines in March 2020 advising against homeless sweeps due to increased risk of infection.
Besides safety and health concerns, activists argue in an article by Curbed Los Angeles, that homeless sweeps do little, if anything, to help solve the problem. Essentially, sweeps do not provide homeless people with the means to work, eat, or obtain a home. They simply create more obstacles.
A Sweep at Pioneer Park
In December 2020, a sweep occurred in Corvallis at Pioneer Park. The city gave homeless inhabitants of the park two weeks to pack up and leave.
Two people who live at the park, David and Jeff, said that the two-week notice was enough time. However, because a background check and application are now required to live at Pioneer Park, David said that many people were scared away and didn’t come back after the sweep, as they usually would.
Another inhabitant of the park, Corey, said that the application process to live at the park was fairly easy.
David spoke about feeling “isolated without friends” after the sweep. Still, he said that the situation in Corvallis is better than the one in Albany, where the city, according to him, basically makes “being homeless illegal.”
“[We] appreciate Corvallis being friendlier than Albany,” David said.
Jeff thought that the sweep was a “good thing” because it meant that the litter at the park got cleaned up. After the sweep, when asked if he now feels safer, Jeff said, “Well, there’s nowhere safe. But yeah, to a degree.”
OSU Students There to Help
However, many struggle during the relocation process of homeless sweeps.
After hearing about the sweep, Kali Doten, a master’s student at OSU studying environmental arts and humanities, started a GoFundMe to aid those impacted by the sweep. The fundraiser was able to raise almost $7,000.
With these funds, community members were able to band together and organize a work party for the day of the sweep to assist residents with relocating. The group spent all day at Pioneer Park, providing supplies like moving boxes and blankets, filling propane tanks, and serving food. A community resources document was also created to help homeless folks.
The remainder of the funds was given out to further support homeless people displaced by the sweep. That’s how people like Emmet Ritter and Ty Williams came in to help.
Ritter, a fourth-year graphic design student, and Williams, a fourth-year English and education student, both attending Oregon State University, were a part of a community effort to help those affected by the sweep. Some were affiliated with the Mid-Willamette Valley Industrial Workers of the World — a branch of IWW based in Corvallis focused on improving the working conditions and lives of the working class.
“I thought it was unfair what they were going through,” Ritter said. “I see folks living in trailers and people who are homeless as our neighbors. They should be treated as such; they should be treated with dignity and respect, and oftentimes, they’re seen as a burden or a problem, and I find that really upsetting and disturbing.”
Williams agreed. “I don’t see why we can’t treat them with some degree of human decency. I just see it as a morally right thing to do. I’m able to help out, so I did.”
Ritter said that the experience with helping those affected by the sweep was invaluable. They gained friends through the process and were able to hear the life stories of people they would have never met otherwise.
“It was really just a team effort, people who came together from all different backgrounds to try and make this work,” Williams said.
Is Corvallis Doing All it Can?
The question of whether the city of Corvallis is doing all it can to help the homeless population is one that has popped up time and time again. Ritter said they don’t think the city is doing a great job.
“I don’t think that they [the city] are doing a very adequate job,” Ritter said. “I think I’ve found that the city really treats them as [a] problem, like groups of people that they just move from one place to another and don’t really find solutions, especially when it comes to things like drug usage or mental health problems.”
Williams said that sweeps in general are not adequate solutions to the problems homeless people experience. “I really think that it’s not fixing the problem, it’s just moving it out of sight,” he said. “I think the fact that people are homeless is in and of itself a problem. I don’t think them being around is a problem; just the circumstances they’re in are problematic.”
Many people, Williams explained, assume there are people to help in situations like the sweep, when often there are not.
“It’s easy to look at a problem like that where people’s lives are literally on the line – it’s easy to look at that and say, ‘well, I can just let someone else deal with it, [there are people] whose job it is to deal with it,’” Williams said. “It’s easy to tell ourselves that, but sometimes that isn’t the case…Somebody has to step in.”
Ritter and Williams both said that there are multiple ways community members can help the homeless population. Ritter works as a volunteer for the Daytime Drop-In Center and said that the work at the Men’s Shelter, Women’s Shelter, and Hygiene Center is vital, and that more people should be aware of the resources they provide.
For those who want to help with efforts like the sweep, Williams said, “We will not turn anybody away.”
By Cara Nixon
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