Portland Street Response no longer allowed to hand out tents following order from Fire Commissioner Rene Gonzalez

A man covers himself with a mylar emergency blanket and then a tarp to keep himself warm on a cold morning in Portland. As the city continues sweeping tents, more unsheltered people are sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags without protection from weather.

Portland’s newest commissioner, Rene Gonzalez, announced Tuesday evening a temporary suspension of tent and tarp distributions by employees of the public safety bureaus he manages, which includes Portland Street Response.

He cited what he said are dangers from fires set inside tents or under tarps to firefighters, people experiencing homelessness and nearby residents.

Portland Street Response, the city’s emergency response team that sends trained mental health professionals instead of police to people experiencing mental health crises, often hand out tents and tarps to people who have no other shelter or housing options.

The team handed out 463 tents and 193 tarps in 2022, according to data provided by Portland Street Response. Robyn Burek, Portland Street Response program manager, said tent fires are a safety concern, but so is the possibility of people succumbing to hypothermia and frostbite. To address both, they will stop handing out tents but continue distributing winter coats and blankets, she said.

Local nonprofit leaders say the policy change is cruel, will leave the city’s most vulnerable people less protected and doesn’t address the actual cause of fires.

The suspension of tent and tarp distributions comes after a tent-related fire occurred Tuesday morning under the Morrison Bridge at SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. While no people were injured, six puppies and a mother dog died, police said.

“It has become clear that tent and tarp-related fires are a grave public safety emergency for our city,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “Unsanctioned fires put our first responders, houseless individuals and our neighborhoods at risk. I am taking immediate action to save lives and protect Portlanders from life-shattering injuries.”

Portland Fire Marshal Kari Schimel said in a statement that Portland Fire has been called 1,015 times in the past two years to respond to tent-related fires.

“I have unequivocally advised Commissioner Gonzalez that there is no such thing as a safe, unsanctioned fire in a tent,” Schimel said.

Gonzalez said he wants to see houseless people seek shelter in public warming centers during cold weather events instead of starting fires.

Temperatures dropped into the high 20s on Tuesday night and are forecasted to be in the low 30s overnight through Friday, according to the National Weather Service. While Washington and Clackamas counties opened warming shelters Tuesday night, none were open in Multnomah County where emergency shelters only open when temperatures hit 25 degrees and below or there is rain or snow accumulation combined with cold temperatures.

Low body temperature contributed to eight deaths in the colder months of 2021, according to the most recent Domicile Unknown report on homeless deaths.

Jennifer Vines, Multnomah County public health director, said that not all of those winter deaths occurred during declared severe weather emergencies, which prompt additional warming shelters to open throughout the county. People died while living outside when temperatures were in the 30s, while the county waits for temperatures to sink to 25 degrees before it opens warming shelters on dry nights.

Lauren Armony, a manager at homelessness organization Sisters of the Road, said she believes the order by Gonzalez is “cruel.”

“At Sisters of the Road we are here for solutions that address the root cause of homelessness, which is housing,” Armony said. “But for those people who are still on the street just barely surviving, taking away these supplies is inhumane.”

Taking away tents will not address the reason why people start fires, which is to stay warm or to cook food, Armony said. She suggested looking into allowing people to use safer burn technologies like portable camping stoves or providing a community kitchen.

Scott Kerman, director of homelessness nonprofit Blanchet House, said he understands the dire need to address the dangers the tent fires pose to unhoused people, first responders and others in the community. However, he said it will leave the city’s most vulnerable neighbors even more exposed.

“Simply telling people to seek warming shelters misses the fact that warming shelters are not often open, and when they are open are limited to overnight hours only,” Kerman said. “Places where people can find warmth are few and far between.”

Nicole Hayden reports on homelessness for The Oregonian/OregonLive. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Nicole_A_Hayden.

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