"Mama Kat," left, and Justin McDonald, 40, stand outside of Sisters of the Road Cafe in downtown Portland Thursday, July 7, 2022. Both live on the streets and have experienced their encampments being swept. Mark Graves/The Oregonian

In the wake of massive sweeps of encampments in Portland’s Old Town neighborhood in May, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler deemed the city’s new approach to addressing the homelessness crisis an early success and announced he would take it citywide.

But the evidence to support that claim of success is all but non-existent, an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive shows. That is largely because city officials have failed to collect meaningful data or coordinate with outside groups or agencies it works with, the analysis found. The city has no evidence any individuals it rousted from sleeping on the streets got permanent housing or other needed services.

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