ONTARIO – Area officials will meet this week to begin developing a plan to clear out a homeless encampment on private property near town.
Dubbed “the flats,” the area off of Northwest 22nd Avenue has become an illegal sanctuary for the unhoused who live in recreation vehicles.
The Malheur County Sheriff’s Office will conduct the sweep, but details of the operation are yet to be ironed out. Travis Johnson, Malheur County Sheriff, said he plans to meet with a host of different agencies this week to craft a clean up plan for the area.
Johnson noted the clean-up effort won’t happen immediately. When it does, he said, it will be a “multi-day, multi-week effort.”
“We are not going to show up on day one and remove people. It is going to be a process. We will get in and contact people and educate them, point them in the direction of resources,” he said.
Kesey said he hopes area agencies including as Lifeways and the Housing Authority of Malheur County have representatives attend this week’s meeting.
Planning will be the key to resolving issues at the site, said Johnson.
“There will be nothing easy about this,” he said.
Johnson said the area has become a hotbed for crime and is a danger to the community.
“It is hazardous. It is dangerous. We have drug-dealing going on there,” he said.
In addition, he said the area is in violation of Malheur County code.
“We can’t sit ideally by and let this thing grow and continue to cause problems,” said Johnson. “We discuss it almost daily, the problems we have out there and the amount of drug dealing. We can’t just allow crimes to take place because people don’t have a place to go.”
The county has no accurate count of how many unhoused people live at the encampment, he said.
He said it is like a mini-city with its own hierarchy.
“There is a ruling class out there, if you will, and it is ruled by force and fear,” he said.
Johnson said the abandoned RVs are “a big problem,” with at least “20-plus (RV) campers wedged in there.”
“What are we going to do with all the campers? Because tow companies don’t want them. So that will be a major problem and expense,” he said.
Johnson described what has happened at the area as “third-world stuff.”
“It is unacceptable. We will do everything legally to remove the RVs and the people,” he said.
Dan Cummings, Ontario city manager, said the issue isn’t as simple as moving RVs off the land.
“Something needs to be done but where are they going to move them to? That’s the question,” he said.
There is a designated camping site for the unhoused in Ontario in a lot on Southwest 13th Avenue. That site, though, restricts RVs.
“It’s not set up for that and the law does not require us to do that,” he said.
The Ontario site was opened after the city passed an ordinance last year that prohibited camping on city property and rights-of-way – including parks – between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Cummings he’s received complaints from business owners in the area about the RVs at the flats.
“It has become a real health issue there,” he said.
News tip? Contact reporter Pat Caldwell at [email protected]
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