A father raising his child alone in Oregon found himself entangled in a frustrating bureaucratic situation after months of pleading with city officials to address a burgeoning homeless camp near his home. Instead of tackling the issue, officials chose to penalize him for his garden hedge.
Chris Bolton, who resides at the intersection of Southeast Clinton Street and 89th Avenue, watched as Portland city councilors sidestepped his requests and instead focused on his slightly overgrown hedges.
Bolton had repeatedly reached out to the city about the growing number of tents, trailers, and RVs taking up space adjacent to his property.
The lush hedges surrounding his garden had become an informal boundary, separating his home from a neighborhood area that was increasingly chaotic.
In early December, rather than addressing the encampment Bolton had reported multiple times, a representative from the Portland Bureau of Transportation visited him. They came not to discuss the encampment but to notify him that his hedge was extending too far into the public space.
The official indicated that the hedge’s growth might obstruct the placement of a planned stop sign at the corner.
Bolton says what followed was swift and relentless, with enforcement aimed not at the encampment, but at him.
Within days, notices began arriving. Code enforcement officers cited him for violating property maintenance rules and warned of financial penalties.
Chris Bolton, a self-employed single father living in Portland spent months contacting city officials about tents, trailers and RVs parked along his property line
The encampment included an RV that was parked along side his hedge
There were also multiple tents housing several people that sprouted up
A formal notice outlined the possibility of a $693 fine and even a lien against his home if the hedge was not brought into compliance quickly.
The escalation stunned Bolton, a self-employed single parent who said he had already spent months trying to get the city to address conditions outside his home.
Residents in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood said his experience reflects a broader pattern – one in which long-standing complaints about crime and disorder go largely unresolved, while minor code violations are enforced with urgency.
Over the years, neighbors say the area has struggled with a range of issues, including illegal dumping, drug activity, reckless driving and a steady rotation of abandoned or occupied vehicles.
The encampments are just one part of a wider breakdown that worsened during the pandemic.
City officials have acknowledged the corridor, just south of Division Street between Southeast 82nd and 92nd avenues, as a recurring trouble spot for lived-in and abandoned vehicles.
Records show that at least 22 RVs and other vehicles were tagged for removal near Bolton’s home between October 1 and March 31.
Seven of those were ultimately towed. The remaining vehicles, officials said, had moved before crews returned – a pattern neighbors say is all too familiar, with encampments simply shifting block by block.
Join the discussion
Should cities prioritize cracking down on residents’ minor violations over addressing homelessness and crime?
Bolton complained that a generator ran day and night, producing constant noise and fumes but instead received a nuisance notice warning of a $693 fine if he did not fix his hedge
The city said the hedge had grown into the public right-of-way and could obstruct a stop sign
The hedge, once dense and protective, was reduced significantly during the cleanup effort
Bolton’s attempts to get help were extensive.
Public records, including emails and call logs, show he contacted more than a dozen city employees, departments and programs.
At one point, six weeks passed before a constituent liaison from the City Council’s District 1 office responded to his request for assistance.
By his own estimate, Bolton spent more than 40 hours trying to resolve the situation, along with thousands of dollars and significant personal stress.
‘A question I often asked myself was, “How in the world could anybody else deal with this?”‘ Bolton told The Oregonian.
‘I never figured out what to do or who to call. It just seemed like I kept getting lost in people’s inboxes – or they were simply passing the buck.’
City of Portland spokesperson Cody Bowman acknowledged shortcomings in how Bolton’s case was handled, describing it as ‘an example of where we can improve customer service.’
‘We never want Portlanders to feel like they’re navigating the city alone,’ Bowman said.
Still, for residents, the response has done little to ease frustration.
Data from Portland’s Bureau of Emergency Communications shows 432 reported incidents within a three-block radius of Bolton’s home over the past year.
Remnants of the encampment included trash, damaged trailers and scattered debris
When officials arrived in December, they focused on Bolton’s hedge rather than the encampment that included RVs that were falling apart
Parts of the hedge were difficult to access because trailers were still parked alongside it
In response to the violation, he organized friends and neighbors to help cut it back
Those reports include theft, assault, robbery, prostitution, vandalism, suspicious activity and even shootings. Thirty-two incidents occurred within roughly 165 feet of his property.
Neighbors said those numbers only tell part of the story, pointing to constant calls to 311, emails to city agencies and online reports that often go unanswered.
‘It’s extremely frustrating,’ resident Kristopher Mahdak told OregonLive.
‘You’ve got to have a Buddhist mentality when trying to get the city to respond to just about anything around here.’
Another resident, Stefanie Kraus, described taking extraordinary precautions when walking her child through the neighborhood.
‘I used to carry a baseball bat and bear mace in my baby’s stroller,’ she said.
Bolton’s own paper trail shows a steady escalation of concern.
In an October 5 email to the city’s Public Environment Management Office, he described campers cutting into his hedge and digging into the ground – something he feared was being used for waste disposal.
‘I have a tenant. I have a grade schooler. I don’t want sewage seeping into my yard. Can you help?’ he wrote.
Weeks passed without a response, he said, despite repeated calls to 311.
On November 3, he sent another message, describing late-night arguments, generator noise and fumes drifting into his home.
The position of the RVs blocked the hedge making it hard to maintain the hedge
This is how the hedge used to look in 2014 – long before this saga ever began
Bolton said the ordeal cost him dozens of hours, thousands of dollars and significant stress
Bolton is seen standing triumphantly on top of his hedge which he is now in the process of removing entirely
Still without a reply five days later, he wrote again expressing doubt that anything would be done.
‘I know this is a fruitless exercise because you won’t do anything about it,’ he wrote.
He finally received a response on November 10, when a city coordinator apologized and said the site would be cleared within a week.
Some tents did leave, but debris, trailers and trash remained when transportation officials arrived in early December – shifting the focus to Bolton’s hedge.
Unable to fully access parts of it due to the encampment, Bolton says he was nevertheless expected to bring it into compliance immediately.
‘I can’t even get to parts of my hedge because of the trailers,’ he wrote in a December email to city council offices.
‘The irony of being threatened with a (lien) on my house if I don’t cut down my hedge feels like something out of a Kafka novel.’
In the end, Bolton said he and a group of friends and neighbors took matters into their own hands, cutting back the hedge extensively to satisfy the city’s demands.
But the experience, he says, has left a lasting impression – not just of a single dispute, but of a system that he and others believe struggles to respond consistently to the people it serves.
