View Comments
Dozens of people who have been living at two encampments along state highways in Salem over the past year will have to relocate ahead of planned sweeps starting July 19.
The Oregon Department of Transportation posted notices last week ordering campers to remove their belongings from campsites under the Interstate 5 overpass on Market Street and Salem Parkway near Hyacinth Street NE.
During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, transportation officials refrained from evicting unsheltered people from state property. But with the recent lifting of COVID-19 emergency restrictions, the cleanups of encampments statewide have resumed to "restore these properties for everyone’s use as part of the transportation system," according to ODOT spokesperson Angela Beers Seydel.