A large encampment of homeless people has forced the relocation of an LPGA tournament from Portland, Oregon, to West Linn, Oregon.
The LPGA’s Cambia Classic, an event that has been held annually at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club in Portland, was forced to move after a large group of homeless people took over the club’s parking lot. Not only has the situation become chaotic due to the encampment itself, it has also become extremely dangerous as the homeless camp devolved into a situation reminiscent of Seattle’s CHAZ in 2020.
According to the Oregonian, the camp has become “dotted with run-down RVs, trailers, tents, makeshift housing structures and mounds of rubble and garbage.”
To make matters worse, gunfire can regularly be heard coming from the camp.
According to Tom Maletis, the president of the group that is organizing the event, the situation has become especially frustrating.
“It was a really tough decision,” Maletis said via the Oregonian. “We are frustrated and disappointed about the move. But it’s just something that we feel is best for the tournament and everyone involved.”
One would think that law enforcement would simply move in to disperse the encampment and arrest the offenders, but this is Portland.
As Maletis told the Oregonian, his group got little support from city officials when he approached them with the problem.
“We couldn’t get any guarantees that the situation would be cleaned up,” Maletis explaned. “As much as we wanted to kind of hang tight and hope everything would be all right, we just didn’t really know.”
It won’t just be a bunch of wealthy country club golfers who are hurt by the tournament’s relocation, according to the Oregonian, the event has donated more than $18 million for Portland charities since 1972.