About 100 people gathered on the steps of City Hall in Portland on Friday afternoon to protest the sweeps of homeless encampments executed by the city.

The sweeps began in May with the Bayside encampment and continued last week when the Fore River encampment was dismantled.

Jess Falero, the protest’s lead organizer, said that the immediate goal is to stop the sweeps. Falero said the protesters want the City Council to pass an ordinance putting an end to them.

“It doesn’t matter if that looks like a sanctioned campground, or just allowing people to camp while we figure out the problem, as long as we stop bulldozing people’s homes,” Falero said.

A band played at the event and several people spoke, including activists, homeless people and formerly homeless people. Shannon Rafferty-Roy, 65, held a sign that read “Sweeps make our unhoused homeless.” Rafferty-Roy volunteers with a small organization called My Father’s Hands that provides free coffee and breakfasts twice a week on the corner of Commercial and Moulton streets. She says she has emailed a number of city staff and representatives inviting them to these breakfasts.

“These people are out here living every day trying to survive and that is it,” Rafferty-Roy said. “Why don’t our council members sit down and talk with some of these folks?” She also said she’d like to see council members attending the sweeps should they continue. “I’d like to see them helping people pack up their stuff, and see what it’s like,” she said.

Councilor Anna Trevorrow was at the protest and said she wants the encampment sweeps to stop.

“I don’t think it’s the right solution, especially when we don’t have available beds to offer people,” Trevorrow said. She would like to bring more outreach workers to the encampments and prioritize mental health and addiction support. Trevorrow also revealed that she had received new data Friday on how many tents are currently in the city. There are 239 tents, she said, more than were up earlier this summer.

State Rep. Grayson Lookner, D-Portland, spoke at the protest.

“I would like to see the city of Portland guarantee housing,” he said in an interview following his speech, “but first and foremost we need to stop these sweeps, because right now we’re exacerbating this crisis.” On the state level, Lookner has introduced legislation to create a community housing developer that would create a mixed-income, publicly owned system of housing. A similar system has been adopted in Seattle.

Mary Thompson, 65, was also at the protest. She was homeless in Portland for nine years before recently finding housing through Avesta, but her daughter is still on the streets and battling a drug addiction. Thompson would like to see more outreach workers at the encampments.

“Those were the first people who helped me,” she said. Her daughter lives at the Casco Bay encampment and Thompson is worried that if the encampment is swept her daughter’s health will decline further. “I’m terrified,” she said “and I don’t know how to help her.”

Falero said that the protesters planned to “take follow-up action” if the council fails to pass an ordinance putting a stop to the sweeps. Falero would not specify what that action might be.

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