Portland Residents With Disabilities Sue Over City’s Blocked Sidewalks

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — People with disabilities in Portland, Oregon, have sued the town, saying they will’t navigate its sidewalks due to sprawling homeless encampments.

The federal class motion lawsuit says the town has violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by permitting homeless folks’s tents to dam metropolis sidewalks, making it tough for folks utilizing wheelchairs, walkers or canes to make use of them.

“The whole class of individuals with disabilities are often disadvantaged of the advantages of companies of the town of Portland,” stated John DiLorenzo, lead counsel for the plaintiffs.

The swimsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland.

The plaintiffs embody 9 folks with disabilities and a caretaker. Among the plaintiffs is Keith Martin, a 71-year-old a Portland resident who has used a wheelchair since having a stroke three years in the past.

“I couldn’t get to my breakfast within the morning as a result of there was a tent masking the entire sidewalk,” Martin stated. “I used to be compelled onto the road and narrowly missed a streetcar that got here across the nook.”

Oregon’s homelessness disaster has been fueled by a housing scarcity, the coronavirus pandemic and excessive drug dependancy charges. Federal information from the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health discovered that 9% of teenagers and adults in Oregon had illicit drug use issues in 2020. That yr, the state additionally ranked final in entry to drug dependancy remedy, in accordance with the survey.

The class motion swimsuit seeks to require the town to clear all sidewalks of tent encampments and particles, and to “assemble, buy, or in any other case present for emergency shelters during which to deal with the unsheltered individuals” who could also be affected.

Such measures would make sidewalks accessible for folks with disabilities in a secure method whereas offering a secure place for unhoused folks, DiLorenzo stated.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s workplace stated the mayor is assembly with the town legal professional earlier than offering remark.

About 13% of Portlanders dwell with a incapacity, in accordance with the lawsuit, together with 6% with mobility impairments and a pair of.4% with visible impairments.

Plaintiff Steve Jackson, 47, is legally blind and makes use of a cane to stroll. He stated tents forestall him from navigating the sidewalk and accessing bus stops.

“Often there’s tents blocking the complete sidewalk, the place I don’t see them as a result of they weren’t there the day earlier than, and I hit the tent after which persons are mad at me and suppose I’m attacking them,” Jackson stated throughout a information convention.

There have been about 3,000 unsheltered folks dwelling in Multnomah County, residence to Portland, throughout the newest point-in-time rely in January 2022, county figures present.

The Portland City Council declared a state of emergency on homelessness in 2015 and has prolonged it 5 occasions since then. The measure, now set to run out in 2025, reduces the bureaucratic hurdles surrounding the creation of homeless shelters.

Despite the town’s years-long emergency measure, the estimated variety of folks experiencing homelessness spiked 25% within the Portland space between 2020 and 2022, in accordance with point-in-time counts reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This yr alone, Wheeler has issued 4 emergency declarations to deal with homelessness points. Most not too long ago in August, he expanded a earlier declaration that prohibits tenting alongside high-speed corridors resembling highways to incorporate key strolling routes to Okay-12 colleges.

The state has wrestled with a debate over one of the best ways to scale back homelessness. Some enterprise teams have referred to as for extra encampment sweeps and stricter enforcement of anti-camping ordinances, whereas others need extra funding in social companies and reasonably priced housing.

Oregon lawmakers earlier this yr accepted a funds that features $400 million to deal with homelessness and housing.

Claire Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points. Follow Claire on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ClaireARush.