The Portland City Council recently voted against a proposal from a progressive council member aimed at reducing the city’s homeless-camp-removal budget by $4.3 million. This program is part of an initiative to provide housing solutions for individuals without shelter.
Councilor Angelita Morillo, who once experienced homelessness in Portland, introduced the amendment to the fall budget. As a progressive voice on the council, Morillo sought to address issues surrounding the frequent removal of homeless camps.
“Our goal with this amendment is to decrease the number of sweeps occurring. We’ve seen a significant rise in these actions,” Morillo stated during a council meeting on Wednesday. The session, which lasted over nine hours, was marked by intense debate among the members.
Morillo further argued, “Although there are situations where camp removals are necessary, the city is spending exorbitant amounts of money without effectively addressing homelessness.”
The meeting attracted a substantial public response, with dozens of citizens attending to voice their opinions. The public testimony segment extended for three hours, as seen in the meeting’s livestream.
According to a recent report by Portland State University’s Homeless Research & Action Collaborative, 12,034 people are currently experiencing homelessness in the tri-county area around Portland.
That number has risen 61 percent from 2023 and is spread out across Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties, per the report.
Morillo pointed out that the city’s Impact Reduction Program (IRP), which is responsible for cleaning up encampments, is on track to remove 8,000 camps this fiscal year. The IRP projected it would remove 6,500 at most.
Angelita Morillo, a progressive member of the Portland City Council, proposed a budget amendment that would have cut the $14 million budget for homeless encampment removals by $4.3 million
Pictured: A homeless encampment in downtown Portland on October 10, 2025
The IRP is described on the city’s official government website as aiming to ‘minimize the impacts of homelessness today while partner programs expand access to safe, affordable housing.’
‘We provide garbage removal, hygiene access, resource referral and job opportunities – and remove campsites that pose the highest risk to health and safety,’ it says.
At the meeting Wednesday, City Councilor Steve Novick offered the most criticism of Morillo’s amendment.
‘Councilor, you said that in some cases…you think that camps should be removed,’ Novick told Morillo, who was seated next to him.
‘We are not cutting the full program,’ she responded.
Novick continued to press her on specifics, wanting to know precisely how much of a decrease in camp removals Morillo was targeting.
‘You know that budget decisions force policy choices, and I’m just saying that I would have expected before presenting a budget amendment that you would have had a discussion with the Housing and Homeless Committee about…what it would mean for what types of camps are removed,’ he said.
‘We are asking for fewer sweeps, we are asking for more upstream solutions,’ she replied, suggesting more rental assistance for people trying to escape homelessness.
‘So just fewer? Not fewer by X percent? Not fewer based in a certain criteria? Just fewer?’ Novick pressed.
‘Right, you can do as much as you can with the amount of money that we are giving you,’ she said of the IRP team.
Councilor Steve Novick repeatedly asked Morillo pointed questions about her amendment during the Wednesday meeting
Business owner Emily Stutzman told KGW she was against the cuts to homeless sweeps.
‘There are people who put their camps up around my businesses, and it deters my employees from coming in because they are scared,’ she said. ‘I also have clients that are uncomfortable coming to my business because there’s been violence and there’s fires and there’s scary things.’
John Collins, who used to live under a bridge in Portland, told KGW that he supported Morillo’s amendment.
He said that his encampment was swept at least three times by city crews, and all that happened was they moved across the street.
Collins argued that if the government does not spend money on actually getting homeless people into homes, clearing the encampments is ‘just a waste of money’.
Morillo’s amendment had five votes in favor and three votes against. Because because four councilors were absent, their votes were de-facto No’s, leading to her proposal failing.
