Updated 4:42 p.m.

A cluster of homeless campers who moved off the Springwater Corridor earlier this month plans to stand its ground and risk arrest now that the city has noticed the group's new spot and ordered the small faction to move again.

The spot - a tidy gathering of tents lined with trash bins, chairs, and lots of outdoor gear - is "100 percent better," said Jackie Hooper, 51. "It's smaller. No shootings. No fires. No fights. It's peaceful. It's harmony."

This is where Hooper and about a dozen others landed after Mayor Charlie Hales set a Sept. 1 deadline to sweep Portland's 14-mile stretch of the Springwater trail and start enforcing the city's ban on outdoor camping.

They call the place Camp Amanda -- part of the city-owned Foster Floodplain Natural Area, bounded by Southeast Foster Road on one side and Johnson Creek on the other. It takes 120 paces along a windy path from Foster Road to get to their enclave, out of the view of traffic.

It's less than 300 yards south of the Springwater, but the group considered it far enough away from the popular trail to escape the city's crackdown.

Then last Friday, workers posted illegal campsite notices at the encampment, giving seven days for the group to leave.

Most shelters don't allow pets and make people leave in the morning every day, so Hooper said she chooses to live outdoors.

"Where am I going to go? Where? I've got to pack up my two cats that I can't carry. I don't care about any of this stuff. I care about my two cats," she said.

Campers developed a code of conduct and they take out trash every other day, said Hooper, who lived on the Springwater for about six months before moving here. Her boyfriend, Jesse Sadler, rides his bike with a cart full of trash bags to the Clackamas Service Center about two miles away, she said.

For bathrooms, they dug two latrine holes and lined them with plastic bags, Hooper said. They throw away half-full plastic bags of sewage instead of dumping the waste on the land and in the creek, she said.

But the city has had reports that "campers in this area are doing serious harm to the creek, including destroying beaver dams," said Brian Worley, Hales' spokesman. "No one from the city has given the campers approval to set up at this site and it is not considered low-impact."

So far no one living on or near the Springwater has been arrested just for homeless camping since the sweep began, Worley said, and the city considers it a last resort to put people in handcuffs if they refuse to leave.

Cleanup crews have begun the final phases of the overall cleanup. As of Sept. 20, they have been focusing on wetlands on the east side of Southeast 111th Avenue, not far from Camp Amanda- named for Amanda Reese, a homeless advocate who helped create the advocacy group Rose City Backpacks of Hope.

The Camp Amanda campers migrated from "Lambert Field" - the biggest and dirtiest outpost along the Springwater and first place targeted in the city sweep.

For the next few months, they just need temporary space to sleep while city officials work to open up more shelter beds and outreach workers scramble to find other options for the hundreds of people still sleeping on the streets, Reese said.

"We're going to stand out and protest everyday until they show up," Reese said, "and when they do show up, we're going to lock arms and stand our ground."

The city will continue to ask service agencies to help find a spot for the people to go, Worley said. If the Camp Amanda campers remain, the city likely will post new notices with a new deadline to vacate, he said.

"In addition to the new Hansen Shelter that opened in July and Gresham Women's Shelter that opened just last week, regional partners are opening an additional 120 beds later this fall at the McLoughlin Resource Center for people to use," Worley said. "In all, more than 450 shelter beds will be open by fall."

City officials have stressed that homeless people leaving the Springwater can still camp, but in small groups through "low-impact" camping without elaborate structures.

Camp Amanda doesn't appear to fit that definition.

Hooper said she's going nowhere. After her landlord declared bankruptcy and kicked her out out, she's been trying to find a home, she said. To make matters worse, she said she recently lost her job as a medication aide and she's trying to other work, she said.

Living in a campsite already makes that difficult. She can shower only twice a week at the Clackamas Service Center.

"You don't want to go to an interview dirty. So I'm just trying to coordinate a shower and then go look for a job. But now, here come the sweeps."

-- Tony Hernandez

thernandez@oregonian.com

503-294-5928

@tonyhreports

Spokesman Brian Worley sent the following statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive:

The area of 114th and Foster on the Springwater was re-posted for notice of cleanup this past Fri. Sept. 23. This is in addition to the no camping notices that were posted before the Sept. 1 start date along the entire trail. This location is part of the 14-mile city section of corridor, and was scheduled within Phase 4. At the time of the additional re-posting Friday there were about 8-12 campers at the site. The cleanup of the site is scheduled to begin this week, likely today depending on resource availability. Please note, cleanup work continues along the entire 14-mile section of the City's portion of the Springwater Corridor. Like all city owned property along the Springwater and across the city, any new cleanup or post-cleanup maintenance and restoration work will be coordinated by the landowning bureau through OMF's Campsite Cleanup Service, in this case Parks and BES.

The Springwater Corridor, including this location of Brookside Park within the Foster Floodplain Natural Area, are extremely environmentally sensitive areas. According to reports campers in this area are doing serious harm to the creek, including destroying beaver dams. No one from the City has given the campers approval to set up at this site and it is not considered low-impact.

As Mayor Hales has said before he has resisted moving campers from areas because we don't yet have good options for all the people living on our streets. That continues to be true. Recognizing that, Mayor Hales remains committed to treating homeless people humanely and compassionately; not criminalizing homelessness; and maintaining safety and livability in public spaces.

Intensive social service outreach has continued for ten weeks on the Springwater -- two weeks initially planned, four weeks more in the date change, and four weeks since Sep 1. But from the beginning, the mayor invested in intensive outreach to help people off the trail and into services.

The ultimate goal is to have enough housing and shelter capacity for everyone who needs it.

In addition to the new Hansen Shelter that opened in July and Gresham Women's Shelter that opened just last week, regional partners are opening an additional 120 beds later this fall at the McLoughlin Resouce Center for people to use. In all, more than 450 shelter beds will be open by fall. Meanwhile, work continues on housing affordability after the City's unprecedented investments -- $356.35 million dedicated to affordable housing, rent assistance, homelessness outreach, and related programs.