ODOT: Illegal camp on its land was unsafe

Oregon Department of Transportation workers, backed by Corvallis police officers, began clearing out the remains of a homeless camp on ODOT property north of Corvallis off Highway 99W early Monday morning.

Monday marked the deadline date posted on signs that Corvallis police had posted more than a week before, giving the camp’s dozen or so residents 10 days to vacate.

Only one of the camp’s residents remained when crews showed up Monday at 8 a.m. The man, who did not give his name, said he’d seen the signs warning of the camp’s closure. But he said homeless people see those sorts of signs all the time, and he ignored them.

Indeed, some homeless people had spent years at the camp located on ODOT property between Highway 99W and the railroad tracks just north of the bridge heading into into Corvallis. Some encampments featured decorations, including a tribal mask and an American flag.

Monday, police gave the man the choice of leaving or being charged with trespassing. The man left his makeshift camp for leveling by ODOT steam shovels and bulldozers.

Corvallis police Lt. Dave Henslee said police have cleared out other unsafe and unsanitary homeless camps before, but not like this one. “I’ve been here 16 years, and these camps come and go, but I’ve never seen it this bad,” he said.

Joe Harwood, an ODOT spokesman from Springfield, said Friday that the agency had been contacting people in the homeless camp since September to let them know that the camp would be cleared out by mid-November because of traffic safety, sanitation and garbage issues.

Andrew Ross called the newspaper Monday night and identified himself as a resident of the camp. Like many of his neighbors, he said he blew off ODOT’s earlier warnings. “People took it as their usual bluster and boast,” Ross said. He denied that the camp was unsafe and unsanitary.

“I don’t see a lot of safety and sanity concerns,” Ross said. “I don’t see people getting sick and dying out there.”

But rotting garbage and piles of human waste were everywhere, producing a powerful stench. Some large piles of garbage were covered with plastic tarps. Henslee pulled back one of the tarps and a rat the size of chihuahua scurried out.

Harwood said ODOT’s biggest reason for closing the illegal camp was safety. People from the camp often were known to wander, sometimes intoxicated, onto Highway 99W, posing a danger to themselves and to motorists, he said.

Andrew Ross said that problem was exaggerated. “Some people in that area have heavy-duty alcohol problems, but they keep low profiles,” he said. “They don’t really bother anyone.”

The area’s population shifted with its economic fortunes, but most recently it was home to 12 people, according to Alita Hass-Holcombe, chairwoman of the Corvallis Homeless Shelter Coalition. She said members of the coalition know the camp, and its people, well.

But to most of Corvallis, the camp was a hidden homeless village in the weeds, just below the sight of the thousands of motorists who passed it every day on Highway 99W.

Barbara Ross, who is a member of the homeless shelter coalition, said “To my knowledge, there was only one woman living out there, and she’s staying with friends -. She’s not on the streets.” No relation to Andrew Ross, Barbara Ross said she suspects that a lot of the men moved to a larger homeless camp behind Home Depot just across the railroad tracks.

But that land also is owned by ODOT, Henslee said, and it will eventually be cleared. For now, he estimated that it would take ODOT two weeks to clean out the remnants of the 99W camp.

“The burden on the community to solve this problem is overwhelming,” he said. What’s more, “The impact on the environment is staggering.” He said the homeless people themselves faced several health risks just living there.

Environmental dangers weren’t the only threats. Many of the people who lived there grappled with mental illness, Barbara Ross said, o-ften mixed with drug and alcohol addiction.

Corvallis Police Department Lt. Todd Bailey remembers one homeless man who collapsed in the middle of 99W while carrying a bucket of take-out chicken. “I saw them cross the highway a lot,” Bailey said.

But does destroying homeless camps and forcing people to move on just shuffle the problem from one place to another? Henslee agreed that Monday’s action just treated a symptom.

“The bigger question is what is the community going to do to solve this problem,” he said.