Portland Oregon city council plans to vote today on whether to restrict homeless encampments to certain areas the proposal calls for the creation of at least three large designated campsites for the homeless and to ban the rest of the roughly 700 encampments that are currently scattered across the city more than 3000 people in Portland are without shelter that's a 50% jump from 2019 The plan was unveiled last month by Portland mayor Ted Wheeler who said the homeless should be located closer to the services they need and he calls the homeless crisis in the city a human catastrophe opponents of the plan say camping restrictions effectively criminalize homelessness and fail to address its root causes I'm dawn of water