No more camping will be allowed on Portland's portion of the 21-mile Springwater Corridor beginning Aug. 1, Portland Mayor Charlie Hales said.

To prepare hundreds of people camping on the trail, city officials have asked service agencies to intensify efforts Monday to find homeless folks a place to sleep. That's despite the city's lack of shelter beds for everyone on the trail, Hales said during an interview Thursday with The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The city plans to formally announce the massive cleanup effort later Friday.

"The Springwater is going to have to be off limits," Hales said. "We're going to try to accommodate homeless people in the short term here and there."

An estimated 500 homeless people live along the popular transit path for bicyclists, joggers and outdoor enthusiasts in Portland, Milwaukie and Gresham in Multnomah and Clackamas counties. That homeless population compares with v1,887 people who were unsheltered and sleeping on Multnomah County streets in 2015, according to a one-night count.

"We know that if we close the Springwater to camping ... we send hundreds of people back into the rest of the city," Hales said.

Homeless populations on the trail have caused too much damage to nature areas, and nearby residents and businesses have grappled with growing public safety concerns, he said. Frustrations have recently intensified after police accused a homeless man of shooting another homeless man on the trail, and after firefighters extinguished a fire Monday next to a cluster of tents.

City officials will begin posting notices July 29 on the trail that warns homeless campers about cleanup efforts that's expected to begin three days later. Hales estimates the effort to last around week. The process will be done with the Joint Office of Homeless Services, an agency funded by the city and county, Hales said.

Crews will begin the cleanup efforts along portions of the trail that run through the Lents and Brentwood-Darlington neighborhoods.

The Portland Police Bureau estimates 280 homeless people live in on the trail within those neighborhoods, and officers have responded to a 50 percent increase of simple assaults from last year in that area, said Hales, who serves as the police commissioner.

City residents and businesses have expressed frustration with policies that allow outdoor camping but require people to break camp by morning. Hales said that Portland lacks the resources to enforce that rule citywide.

"We're asking all the providers that we work with, people like JOIN, Janus (Youth Programs) and other service providers who are out there ... to start directing their resources to Springwater," Hales said.

The city is prepared to pay for motel space for homeless people on the cusp of getting housing, until they're ready to move into permanent housing, instead of losing track of them after they leave the trail.

It's unclear how many people it will take to carryout that massive cleanup effort or how much it will cost, but the mayor said the city is prepared to "backfill some of the cost" incurred by the agencies from city coffers.

Portland officials in December said they had 747 emergency beds available year-round and 361 more for winter. And city and county officials have announced more projects since.

The county plans to open a shelter this summer in Southeast Portland for up to 100 people, including couples, and plans to convert an old sheriff's office building for 200 more to help offset another shelter that's closing. The county also converted a closed strip club into a shelter for homeless families that can accommodate up to 134 people.

"We are going to try to make sure the places they find to sleep are the least problematic for everyone else, as possible," Hales said. "That first they go to shelter beds, whether it's the ones that the city and county provide or the ones that churches provide.

"Secondly, if they are going to camp and there's not a shelter for them, that they do that in small groups in places where they cause as few problems for their neighbors as possible."

Will people get arrested if they camp on the trail after the cleanup?

"That's the last resort," Hales said. "Criminalizing homelessness and sending people to jail because they're camping in the wrong place is not our first, second or third choice."

This post will be updated as news develops.

-- Tony Hernandez

thernandez@oregonian.com

503-294-5928

@tonyhreports