When Progressive policies become environmental terrorism

Trash is the new face of radicalized progressive policies

Thousand Acres Dog Park is a massive natural area where the Sandy and Columbia rivers join, forming a single channel. It is owned by the US Forest Service and managed by the County. It is located near the Portland metro area and borders the City of Troutdale. It is a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy hiking, walking their dogs, or relaxing by the river. It is also the location of one of the largest, sketchiest, and messiest homeless encampments in Oregon.

For many years, leadership has knowingly allowed hundreds of homeless people to live in these woods while also ignoring the millions of pounds of trash they have hauled in that have destroyed large sections of this once pristine woods.

I spoke to former Troutdale Mayor Randy Lauer (population 15,000), who expressed his frustration with the County and state. “Despite their repeated attempts to gaslight the public, the destruction of our natural green spaces and the utter disregard for shared community lands on state and public property is undeniable.” In 2021, I took the Mayor to Thousand Acres to see it for himself.

He and I tried to raise awareness with the public, but the state and the County continued to downplay the devastation. We were inspired to raise awareness after a fateful day, only weeks before, when he and I, along with two other mayors, were invited to tour the park.

It only took ten minutes for us to know we were being lied to. We were shown about a dozen camps that were close together and surprisingly clean. No trash, no clutter. We walked down a sandy path that was recently raked. We asked to see other areas and were told that was where all the homeless were. That was an odd answer after hearing rumors for years about how large sections of the park had become nothing more than a massive trash dump.

One of them proudly proclaimed that no drug use or children were living in that vast park. One of the mayors glared at me and rolled his eyes. It was clear that they were putting on a show for us. Considering that addiction rates among the homeless throughout the United States are around 70-80%, it was ludicrous to suggest it was zero.

I was encouraged to return on a weekend to investigate when nobody would be working. Before returning with the Mayor, I went with a City Councilor, and what we found was one of the largest and messiest homeless encampments in Oregon, less than fifty yards from where we were given a tour. The forest was dense, and you couldn’t see the destruction unless standing directly in front of it. There was a massive construction project, with dozens of

“They are either willfully blind or too ignorant to acknowledge the deeper issue of rampant drug and alcohol abuse -Former Mayor Randy Lauer

makeshift houses, including multiple tree houses, and a ton of construction material. There was also trash in areas so concentrated it was like walking through a city dump. There was drug paraphernalia everywhere, with hundreds of used needles scattered on the ground. We also found three children under the age of six living in these woods. One child was barefoot, running over used needles that were sticking out of the sand.

As a child in the 1980s with parents who loved to hike, it was always a strict rule to bring a bag with you to haul out any trash you created. It was always fun for my brothers and me to pick up any additional trash we saw, which more often than not was nothing more than a candy bar wrapper or cigarette butt. Standing over a vast sea of trash, as far as the eye could see, was heartbreaking. All I could think was, when did the Government stop caring?

The famous Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute yellow bags to pick up trash

I decided to take action and coordinated a major cleanup in Thousand Acres with the City Councilor. We found a few dozen volunteers and, a few weeks later, over a four-hour period, picked up a few thousand pounds of trash. A small dent, but a dent nevertheless. This video shows the before and after. Rather than being commended, the City councilor was accused

of breaking the law for discarding individuals’ property. That was so ridiculous. We had hired homeless people living in Thousand Acres to help us identify long-abandoned camps, and they then assisted us in cleaning them. Watch the video and judge for yourself.

Thousand Acres has clearly been poorly managed for years, which is the perfect breeding ground for

criminal enterprises. This was taken only weeks ago and shows a massive illegal chop shop with over 300 bicycles. A few homeless people who have lived in the area for years shared that they were the ones unofficially running the camp, not the government. Seeing what we saw, it was hard to deny their claims.

The only actual enforcement Tara and I found was a no-dumping sign surrounded by thousands of pounds of trash.

As we continued to walk around, we were shocked by the millions of pounds of trash scattered in areas so dense you couldn’t even see the dirt. This is an environmental disaster that could and should have been prevented. It's one thing to turn a blind eye to minor infractions of littering, but this is outrageous.

There are no official roads in this massive park; yet, several cars are parked in front of the homeless encampments. This means the cars would have to be driven over a few curbs, under a pedestrian underpass, then over the narrow dog paths. How could this have been overlooked?

There is always one thing you can count on with progressives and the issue of homelessness. They will always downplay or justify the destruction caused by the homeless. It is probably why we were lied to during the official tour.

I worked in homeless shelters/programs for many years, and we were taught that the root cause of homelessness, addiction, and even crime was capitalism. This excuse has become their go-to one-word scapegoat on why they have not ended the crisis. They argue that only when we abolish Capitalism will homelessness, addiction, and even crime will end. The budgets though of the largest NGOs have quadrupled in the last five years. It’s hard to ignore the irony that anti-capitalists seek bigger budgets every year.

This environmental terrorism is unacceptable and, worse yet, allowed. If these camps were managed better with rules, most people would not even have a problem with the homeless living in these woods, but in a designated area, while agreeing to work closely with a provider to help them become self-sufficient. This has been proposed several times in multiple communities, but the state has historically been opposed to sanctioned camping because the most effective model would involve using private property, which would mean they would have to relinquish control.

What's interesting is that on the U.S Forest Service website, they make it clear that littering of any kind will not be tolerated, and violators could get fined up to $5000 and/or six months in prison. For more serious offenses like illegal dumping, fines can go as high as $25,000 and a year in jail. Considering this disaster in Thousand Acres has been the worst-kept secret ever, I wonder how many homeless people have been fined for these violations?

The answer is likely never. Littering used to be a serious offense, but is rarely ever enforced now, especially if the person is homeless. The main reason the homeless have historically gotten away with destroying a green space is that they are treated by many as a protected class, and as a protected class, they

are in many ways above the law. When I worked in social services, there was a strict rule never to enforce, criticize, or use the word accountability. When I entered the field of social services, I was admittedly blindly trusting my superiors and assumed this was some clinical approach I didn't understand. The longer I worked in the field, though, I realized it had more to do with controlling a narrative than helping those vulnerable people.

One thing that never made sense to me is if they are supposed to be a protected class, why then do they allow them to live in such squalor? I have always hated seeing that, especially when vulnerable kids are stuck in those environments. It’s been three years since we tried to clean the area, and there is about four times as much trash and about twice as many homeless people. The cleanup is going to take a monumental effort. Last month, the Department of State Lands hired Northwest Hazmant to clean the area with a $150k contract. It's unclear if that was to clean the

“I have the utmost respect for law enforcement, but Multnomah County’s HOPE team has largely enabled the decline rather than address it. Our community deserves action, not excuses.” -Former Mayor Randy Lauer

entire area, because if so, they are getting way underpaid. A few weeks later, however, after this private company had run-ins with Stop the Sweep activists and one of them was maced, they paused the cleanup. I interviewed a few homeless people living out there, and their biggest concern with getting swept is that they had not been offered any real services.

This is an Army veteran who served thirteen years and has an honorable discharge. He has lived in Thousand Acres for a long time and said he has never been given any real help. He had one of the cleaner camps. He was told to leave. This is when I do not support sweeps. We must make a genuine effort to help everyone off the streets before sweeping, especially those who genuinely want housing.

It's always confused me that the most vocal supporters of the homeless are often the ones doing the least for the homeless.

Our community has never been more divided over what to do. The debate over homelessness has become an ideological war of words. When I started writing, I was surprised by the amount of hate and even threats I received whenever my opinion differed from theirs. I did a post on my issues with Harm Reduction after witnessing a person die soon after workers gave him a pipe. Soon after, I received multiple threats from strong supporters of Harm Reduction.

I never respond to messages like that, as they’re unproductive, and if a person is willing to say that they don’t have an open mind. Recently, Mayor Keith Wilson said it was time to ‘End the ideological divide on homelessness”. I agree with him. This is a humanitarian crisis unlike anything I have witnessed in my thirty years of working in this field. Just in the last year, we have had a record number of overdoses and deaths.

Working together is easier said than done. This means working with people who may never see the other person’s point of view. I firmly believe that people can find common ground and create a model that works. The homeless and chemically addicted are counting on it.

As for the trash, this is unacceptable. Shame on the ones who have turned a blind eye to this destruction, and shame on the ones who created this mess. No excuses exist to justify this behaviour.