As Encampment Evictions Begin in Medford, Where Are People Supposed to Go?

May 11, 2021

Medford began evicting individuals from their encampments along the Bear Creek Greenway last week. 

As Sydney Dauphinais reported in a piece for Jefferson Public Radio, the local NPR affiliate:

"Medford Police said the people who were evicted 'accepted transitional shelter options, or made other arrangements.' [But according to local housing advocates,] the provided options were insufficient... 'other arrangement’ seems code for ‘we just pushed them elsewhere along the greenway’ or ‘they’re now sleeping in a parking lot’ or ‘they now have a hotel voucher that they can’t use because they don’t have an ID.'"

Medford police evicting an encampment on May 6th

Last week's evictions took place while Jackson county was at the "Extreme Risk" level for coronavirus. The Center for Disease Control and the Oregon Health Authority warn cities that evicting encampments during the pandemic poses a threat to public health, and unhoused individuals were originally told to shelter-in-place along the Bear Creek Greenway for the duration of the pandemic. Displacing these communities in the middle of the pandemic is unacceptable.

Once evicted from their encampments, where are people supposed to go? This is the question we've heard from many unhoused neighbors, including our friend Christine-Marie. Christine-Marie currently lives in a tent along the Greenway, but she has tried to follow the guidance of Medford's new ordinance — which allows for individuals to sleep up to 24 hours on city sidewalks, provided that they do not use a tent.

Here is Christine-Marie sleeping in a small wagon with her service animal on Poplar Drive in Medford. "Cars are driving by and I'm getting ugly looks," she said. "How are people supposed to sleep like this?"

In response to unhoused neighbors asking us where are they allowed to sleep now that police raids have started along the Bear Creek Greenway, the Housing Justice Alliance wrote a letter to the City of Medford, asking them to provide a map outlining the public properties where unhoused individuals are legally allowed to sit, lie down, and sleep. The City of Pendleton provided their unhoused residents with similar map, but Medford has not yet.

The uncertainty of where to go alongside the elevated threat of police harassment and evictions is taking its toll on our unhoused neighbors. "People are really stressed out from being evicted and the anticipation of being evicted," says Melissa Jones, who runs the Stabbin Wagon Mobile Harm Reduction in Medford. "Not knowing where they're going to go after they get raided, people are having mental health challenges."

Our unhoused neighbors were told to shelter-in-place along the Bear Creek Greenway for over a year, and it is inhumane to evict people with only a few days notice.

Call to action! We must continue to ask the City of Medford for a detailed map of where people are legally allowed to lie down and sleep within city limits.

Please write to Medford City Manager Brian Sjothun and Deputy City Manager Kelly Madding, requesting that they release a detailed map that clearly outlines where unhoused individuals are legally allowed to rest. Write to Kelly.Madding@cityofmedford.org and Brian.Sjothun@cityofmedford.org, and make your subject line "Where are people supposed to go? Our unhoused neighbors need a detailed map."