Portland Mayor Charlie Hales said Thursday that the crack down on high-profile homeless camping is about enforcing the law, not criminalizing homelessness.



Hales pledged to increase funding for overnight shelters to help address homelessness, but he'll wait until city finances become clearer before committing to a number.



The topics of homelessness and anti-camping enforcement overlapped frequently during a nearly 30-minute media conference at City Hall, where Hales, Police Chief Mike Reese and Central Precinct Cmdr. Bob Day took questions from reporters and homeless advocates.



"This is not about homelessness," Hales said of enforcing Portland's anti-camping law. "It's about lawlessness."



There was little new information at the session. Hales pointed to Wednesday's arrests -- just five and none Thursday -- as proof the city isn't trying to criminalize homelessness.



Portland's law prohibits overnight camping on city property, but police generally ignore "low-impact" camping. They are only now targeting blatant camps, such as the one that grew on park sidewalks near City Hall.



Hales said police would continue to enforce the city's anti-camping law "where the problems are," which so far have been limited to the central city. Hales said officials are listening to concerns from TriMet about areas of Lents, near Interstate 205.



Day called the police enforcement efforts, which include long-term documenting of camping, "unique." But he said police don't have the manpower or desire to make repeated arrests.



"These are largely complaint driven and conflict driven," he said.



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The mayor also said he wants to do more to support shelters to help the estimated 1,700 Portlanders who will sleep outside Thursday night. But noticeably absent from the session was Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who is in charge of the city's Housing Bureau.

"I personally believe we need more short-term shelter space and I think Commissioner Saltzman does as well," Hales said, "and that's going to be one of things I hope will be in place by this fall."

Hales said he will wait to review an updated financial forecast this month before pledging a specific increase from the city's general fund.

"We're not going to wait until the homelessness problem is solved before we start dealing with the problem of lawlessness," Hales said. "Otherwise we'd wait a very long time."

-- Brad Schmidt